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The  Corn  Lady 


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THE    CORN    LADY 


The 

Corn 

Lady 

The  Story 

of 

a  Counti 
Teacher 
Work 

•y 

S 

27721 

Coun 

By 

JESSIE  FIELD 

ty  Superintendent   of   Schools 
Page   County,   Iowa 

A 

i 

FLANAGAN  COMPANY 
CHICAGO 

copy  BIS  HT  1911 

by 
A.  FLANAGAN  COMPANY 


.Education 
library 


F  + 


DEDICATED  TO  MY  FATHER 
AND  ALL  OTHER  NOBLE,  IN- 
TELLIGENT FARMERS— THE 
PRODUCERS— UPON  WHOM 
WE  ARE  ALL  DEPENDENT. 


Tke  Corn   Lady 

2  772-2- 
Wheaton,  Iowa,  September  3,  1910 

Dear  Daddy  : — Yes,  I  have  really  taught 
my  first  day  of  country  school.  I  do  like 
it,  just  as  I  always  thought  I  would,  for 
there  is  so  much  that  must  be  done.  You 
know  how  I  love  the  country,  Daddy,  and 
how  way  back  in  those  dear  days  at  Sunny- 
side  Farm,  I  used  to  declare  in  my  few  seri- 
ous moments  that  I  was  going  to  be  a  coun- 
try teacher  when  I  grew  up.  I  remember 
how  your  brown  eyes  twinkled  as  you  looked 
at  my  cropped  head  and  bare  brown  feet 
and  said: 

"But  is  it  possible  that  my  tomboy  daugh- 
ter will  ever  sober  down  enough  to  be  a 
dignified  teacher?" 

Then  I  would  run  under  the  colt,  jump  on 
his  back  and  slide  off  just  to  show  you 
what  I  could  do;  or  I'd  scamper  away  to 


io  THE    CORN    LADY 

whisper  my  hopes  and  ambitions  to  the  lit- 
tle mother  who  had  taught  me  to  love  all 
growing  things.  Her  eyes  would  look  very 
gentle,  as  though  they  saw  far  into  the  fu- 
ture, as  she  said: 

"Yes,  little  daughter;  if  you  try  hard  and 
study  and  work,  you  may  sometime  be  a 
great  teacher." 

"And  can  I  be  a  great  teacher  and  teach 
in  the  country?"  I  would  ask. 

Her  blue  eyes,  so  clear  and  true,  would 
search  deeper  than  ever  in  my  brown  ones 
as  she  answered: 

"Yes,  the  greatest  of  teachers — and  teacli 
in  the  country — if  you  only  have  the  eyes 
to  see  and  understand  your  opportunity." 

Mother  knew,  didn't  she?  And  in  the 
days  that  are  to  come,  I  shall  try  to  build 
so  well  that  I  can  carry  out  what  she  said. 
I  already  see  the  great  chance  for  service 
and,  surely,  the  greatest  teacher  is  the  one 
who  helps  the  most. 

I  saw  some  goldenrod  and  purple  asters 
as  I  came  to  school  this  morning  and  have 
had  a  bouquet  of  them  on  my  desk  all  day. 
They  have  brought  a  flood  of  happy  mem- 
ories of  those  days  when  I  walked  back  and 
forth  over  country  roads  from  Sunnyside 


THE    CORN    LADY 


11 


Farm  to  high  school  in  town.  I  always 
felt  sorry,  when  I  came  to  the  corner  by  our 
country  school,  that  a  person  ever  had  to 
learn  so  much  that  she  couldn't  go  to  coun- 
try school  any  longer.  I  also  remember  the 
night  when  I  was  caught  in  a  heavy  rain 


A   COUNTRY    SCHOOLHOUSE 

and  the  sickness  that  came  to  me  because  of 
it.  But  it  was  fine  when  I  began  to  get 
better.  The  doctor  said  I  couldn't  go  back 
to  school  for  a  whole  year  and  that  I  had 
better  be  out  of  doors  a  great  deal.  So  you 
let  me  help  you — and  I  even  learned  to  milk 


12  THE    CORN    LADY 

cows!  I  raised  ducks,  too — dear  little  yel- 
low swimmers — and  planted  some  corn! 
When  I  was  tired  of  this,  which  I  must  con- 
fess was  not  very  often,  mother  let  me  go 
into  the  attic  and  rip  up  all  the  old  clothes 
and  make  them  over  for  the  children,  or 
make  bread  and  get  supper  all  by  myself. 

Weren't  we  so  happy  when  the  chance 
came  for  me  to  work  my  way  through  col- 
lege? For  there  were  so  many  of  us  that 
you  couldn't  very  well  afford  to  send  me. 
During  all  those  years  in  college,  I  still 
was  getting  ready  and  wanting  to  be  a  coun- 
try school  teacher.  When  my  senior  year 
came,  though,  the  professors — and  the  fact 
that  I  could  make  more  money  to  help  the 
girlies  through  school — finally  persuaded 
me  to  take  a  position  in  the  high  school. 

I  liked  that  year  in  high  school  work.  The 
boys  and  girls  were  so  kind  that  I  felt  just 
like  one  of  them.  I  was  only  twenty  years 
old  and  I  guess  they  thought  I  wasn't  a  very 
cross  chaperone,  for  they  always  were  want- 
ing me  to  go  with  them  on  their  picnics.  I 
liked  it  and  yet,  in  the  corner  of  my  heart, 
I  was  hungry  for  the  country.  I  think  it 
was  more  than  the  corner  that  was  hungry, 
but  I  was  so  busy  that  I  crowded  it  into  a 


THE   CORN    LADY  13 

corner  and  kept  a  smiling  face.  You  un- 
derstand, Daddy,  for  you  have  just  the 
same  feeling  for  the  country.  I  believe  I 
inherited  it  from  you — this  love  for  the  open 
country  and  the  soil  and  farm  people. 
Thank  you  for  the  heritage.  It  is  the  best 
thing  I  have  known. 

It  was  like  Providence  when  Mr.  Brown 
came  in  and  told  me  that  they  wanted  a 
good  teacher  for  the  Oak  Grove  School  next 
year,  and  that  they  would  pay  me  as  much 
as  I  was  getting  in  high  school.  Didn't  I 
just  jump  at  the  chance?  You  should  have 
seen  the  look  on  the  face  of  Grace  Berry — 
the  brilliant  sophisticated  teacher  of  history 
in  our  high  school — when  I  told  her.  She 
looked  as  though  she  would  faint  away  as 
she  exclaimed:  "Going  to  teach  a  country 
school?"  She  is  too  polite  to  say  what  she 
thinks,  but  her  face  told  me  that  she  believes 
I  am  going  backward  in  my  profession,  in- 
stead of  progressing.  Poor,  ignorant  spin- 
ster lady  that  she  is;  she  has  entirely  failed 
to  keep  up  with  the  times.  Her  mind  is  too 
shallow  to  hear  the  call  of  the  country;  to 
appreciate  the  great  stretches  of  green  fields ; 
to  know  the  delicious  odor  of  upturned  sod 
and  to  understand  the  gladness,  the  peace 


H  THE    CORN    LADY 

and  the  satisfying  fulness  of  it  all.  But, 
if  she  were  half  alive,  she  might  realize  how 
refined  and  splendid  country  homes  are  get- 
ting to  be;  that  country  people  have  all  the 
modern  conveniences  and  comforts  without 
the  gossip,  unrest  and  envy  of  the  town 
folks. 

In  my  district  there  are  some  very  nice 
homes.  One  is  as  beautiful  as  any  I  have 
seen  anywhere.  Not  so  grand,  perhaps,  but 
homelike,  with  the  lawn  soft  and  velvety, 
roses  climbing  over  everything  and  a  big, 
inviting  porch.  Inside,  there's  a  splendid 
library  containing  many  good  books  and 
magazines,  nice  rugs,  a  bathroom,  and  a  cosy 
dining  room  where  such  wholesome  things 
to  eat  are  served.  And  the  people  that  live 
here?  They  are  good,  unselfish,  farseeing 
country  people,  well  educated  and  interested  j 
in  the  Farmers'  Institute,  the  State  Agricul- 
tural College  and  everything  that  will  help 
make  country  life  all  it  can  be.  You  ought 
to  see  the  road  in  front  of  this  house.  It 
is  a  regular  boulevard  and  the  farmer  told 
me  it  was  made  so  simply  by  the  use  of  the 
King  road  drag.  Well,  when  I  looked  at 
it,  I  was  sure  of  one  thing — he  was  never  too 
busy  to  drag  it  when  it  was  needed. 


THE    CORN    LADY  15 

Best  news  of  all.  It  just  makes  me  want 
to  dance  a  jig.  I  am  whistling  a  tune  as 
I  write  this.  I  know  I'm  a  teacher,  but 
there's  no  one  to  hear  but  you — and  you 


THE    SCHOOL    GARDEN 


don't  mind  for  you've  heard  me  before.  I 
am  going  to  get  board  there.  It  is  about  a 
mile  from  the  schoolhouse  but  I  don't  mind 
that,  for  it  will  be  the  happiest  place  to  stay 
and  they  Mill  help  me. 


16  THE    CORN   LADY 

Not  all  the  homes  are  like  this.  Some  are 
farmed  by  renters,  who  look  as  though  they 
were  not  caring  very  much  and  as  though 
their  corn  would  not  go  more  than  twenty 
bushels  to  the  acre.  There  are,  evidently, 
all  kinds  of  people  in  this  district. 

But,  even  the  most  run-down  homes  and 
farms  compare  favorably  with  the  school- 
house  and  yard.  The  house  needs  paint- 
ing; the  coal  house  has  holes  in  it;  the  fence 
is  falling  down  and  it  looks  as  though  no 
one  cared  very  much  whether  it  kept  step 
with  the  advance  in  countiy  life  or  not.  The 
schoolhouse  is  not  clean  inside,  either.  The 
director  said  he  was  soriy  about  this,  but 
could  find  no  one  to  do  the  work. 

Such  a  school  it  is,  for  thirty-one  bright 
boys  and  girls.  Just  an  ordinary  country 
school,  such  as  you  were  director  of  twenty- 
five  years  ago.  Sometimes  a  better  teacher 
would  come  for  a  term  and  try  to  improve 
conditions  by  making  it  an  imitation  of  a  city 
school.  People  do  not  need  to  look  further 
than  to  just  such  a  school  as  this,  to  know 
why  the  young  people  are  leaving  the  farms 
and  crowding  our  cities. 

I  am  going  to  try,  in  my  country  school, 
to  teach  the  children  in  terms  of  country  life. 


THE    CORN    LADY  " 

I  want  to  make  it  of  real  service  to  the  dis- 
trict— to  the  farms  and  the  homes.  I  will 
write  and  tell  you  in  the  old  "Honest  Injun, 
cross  my  heart  and  hope  to  die"  way  just 
how  I  succeed. 

Love  to  mother  and  the  girlies.  If  you 
see  Tom,  invite  him  up  to  supper  and  try  to 
keep  him  from  getting  lonesome  until  he 
goes  to  college  again.  I  am  missing  you  all 
to-night,  but  I  will  write  often  and  tell  you 
all  about  your  girl,  who  is  very  proud  to 
sign  herself, 

A  Country  Teacher. 


18  THE    CORN    LADY 


fVheaton,  Iowa,   October  4, 1910 

Dear  Daddy  :— Well,  the  first  month  has 
gone  and  I  surely  do  think  that  teaching 
country  school  is  the  best  work  in  the  world. 
The  country  is  beautiful  these  early  autumn 
days.  The  corn  is  tall  and  straight,  with  the 
ears  hanging  down  as  though  they  were  quite 
weary  of  their  own  weight.  I  wish  you  were 
here.  Shut  your  eyes  and  think  of  hills  and 
hills  and  valleys  covered  with  rows  of  corn; 
with  grain  and  alfalfa  fields  between  and 
— here  and  there — pretty  white  houses  and 
red  barns.  Daddy,  doesn't  the  sight  do  your 
heart  good? 

I  have  spent  most  of  the  time,  when  I 
could  get  my  school  work  finished,  in  getting 
acquainted  with  the  people.  I  have  been  to 
see  them  all  and  they  were  glad  to  have  me 
come.  There  is  one  family  that  is  very  poor. 
They  came  here  from  the  mountains  of  the 
South  about  a  year  ago.  The  father  is  not 
very  well  and  he  doesn't  understand  farming 
at  all.    It  is  a  large  family,  the  oldest  an  in- 


THE    CORN    LADY  19 

telligent,  ambitious  bby  about  fourteen  years 
old.  He  cannot  come  to  school  this  Fall, 
for  it  is  necessary  for  him  to  stay  home  and 
help  with  the  work;  but  I  am  going  to  teach 
him  during  evenings  and  he  is  looking  for- 
ward to  the  time  when  corn  husking  is  fin- 
ished so  that  he  can  start  in. 

You  should  know  another  of  my  boys 
whom  I  like.  They  tell  me  that  last  year 
the  teacher  had  to  use  the  stove  poker  on 
him  and  the  director  finally  found  it  nec- 
essary to  expel  him  for  the  good  of  the  rest 
of  the  pupils.  He  is  seventeen  years  old  and 
has  a  dark,  forbidding  face.  But,  under- 
neath the  mask  that  he  wears  to  hide  his  real 
feelings,  I  can  see  strength  and  promise  of 
a  better  manhood.  I  am  finding  a  way  to 
help  him  to  waken  up  his  good  side  and  I'll 
tell  you  about  it  later. 

We  had  a  school  cleaning  bee  and  all 
turned  in  and  made  the  schoolhouse  just 
shine.  The  boys  carried  water;  the  girls 
washed  the  windows  and  desks  and  blacked 
the  stove — and  I  scrubbed  the  floor.  We 
were  all  so  proud  of  the  house,  when  it  was 
clean,  that  I  didn't  mind  my  aching  muscles 
a  bit.  They  all  cleaned  their  feet  the  next 
morning  without  being  told — and   I   even 


20  THE    CORN    LADY 

saw  them  rubbing  out  marks  in  their  books. 
I  sort  of  believe  they  have  cleaner  hearts  for 
having  a  clean  school  home,  too. 

Mr.  Brown,  my  director,  heard  that  the 
schoolhouse  was  clean  and  he  came  over  to 
look  at  it.  He  was  well  pleased  and  said 
he  liked  the  cover  I  had  made  for  the  chart, 
too,  and  the  good  way  in  which  the  children 
were  behaving.  Before  he  left,  he  said  he 
thought  that — since  we  had  done  the  work 
of  cleaning  the  schoolhouse — we  should  have 
the  pay.  So  he  gave  us  an  order  for  three 
dollars,  which  was  what  they  would  have 
had  to  pay  to  get  it  done.  We  couldn't 
think  what  to  get  at  first,  but  we  finally  de- 
cided to  get  a  water  jar,  with  a  cover  and  a 
faucet,  and  each  pupil  said  he  would  get 
a  cup  to  use.  So  Daddy,  you  see  we  are 
getting  very  sanitary ;  we  have  a  clean,  clean 
schoolhouse  and  individual  drinking  cups. 

We  also  decided  there  were  some  more 
things  we  needed.  So  we  voted  for  a  com- 
mittee of  the  big  boys  and  girls  to  plan  a 
pie  and  coffee  social  to  raise  some  money. 
We  had  such  a  nice  time  and  there  was 
enough  money  as  a  result  to  buy  material  for 
some  pretty  sash  curtains,  and  to  put  a  set 
of    supplementary    readers    in    the    school 


THE    CORN    LADY 


21 


library  for  my  first,  second,  third  and  eighth 
grade  classes.  Mr.  Brown  is  going  to  have 
the  schoolhouse  papered  for  us.  We  bought 
a  beautiful  copy  of  Sir  Galahad,  too,  and 


INDIVIDUAL    DRINKING    CUPS 


the  boys  made  a  frame  for  it.  They  love 
the  picture  of  this  knight  of  the  pure  heart. 
1  think  Edward,  the  dark-browed  boy  that 


22  THE    CORN    LADY 

I  told  you  about,  likes  it  best ;  but  he  doesn't 
say  anything  much  about  it. 

You  should  have  heard  the  children  dram- 
atize "Farmer  John."  You  remember  that 
old  poem: 

FARMER  JOHN 

Home  from  his  journey  Farmer  John 
Arrived  this  morning  safe  and  sound; 
His  black  coat  off  and  his  old  clothes  on, 
"Now,  I'm  myself/'  said  Farmer  John, 

And  he  thinks,  "I'll  look  around." 
Up  leaps  the  dog :  "Get  down,  you  pup ! 
Are  you  so  glad  you  would  eat  me  up?" 
And  the  old  cow  lows  at  the  gate  to  greet  him, 
The  horses  prick  up  their  ears  to  meet  him. 

"Well,   well,  old   Bay, 

Ha,  ha,  old  Gray, 
Do  you  get  good  food  when  I'm  away?" 

"You  haven't  a  rib,"  says  Farmer  John; 
"The  cattle  are  looking  round  and  sleek; 
The  colt  is  going  to  be  a  roan, 
And  a  beauty,  too ;  how  he  has  grown ! 

We'll  ween  the  calf  in  a  week." 
Says  Farmer  John,  "When  I've  been  off — 
To  call  you  again  about  the  trough, 
And  watch  you  and  pet  you  while  you  drink, 
Is  a  greater  comfort  than  you  can  think;" 
And  he  pats    old    Bay, 
And  he  slaps  old  Gray, 
"Ah,  this  is  the  comfort  of  going  away!" 


THE    CORN    LADY  23 

"For,  after  all,"  says  Farmer  John, 
"The  best  of  a  journey  is  getting  home; 
I've  seen  great  sights  but  I  would  not  give 
This  spot  and  the  peaceful  life   I  live 

For  all  their  Paris  and  Rome; 
These  hills  for  the  city's  stifled  air 
And  big  hotels  and  bustle  and  glare; 
Lands  all  houses,  and  roads  all  stones 
That  deafen  your  ears  and  batter  your  bones ! 

Would  you,  old  Bay? 

Would  you,  old  Gray? 
That's  what  one  gets  by  going  away." 

"There  Money  is  king,"  says  Farmer  John, 
"And  Fashion  is  queen,  and  it's  very  queer 
To  see  how  sometimes  when  the  man 
Is  raking  and  scraping  all  he  can, 

The  wife  spends,  every  year, 
Enough  you  would  think  for  a  score  of  wives 
To  keep  them  in  luxury  all  their  lives ! 
The  town  is  a  perfect  Babylon 
To  a  quiet  chap,"  said  Farmer  John. 

"You  see,  old  Bay, 

You  see,  old  Gray, 
I'm  wiser  than  when  I  went  away." 

"I've  found  this  out,"  said  Farmer  John, 
"That  happiness  is  not  bought  and  sold, 
And  clutched  in  a  life  of  waste  and  hurry, 
In  nights  of  pleasure  and  days  of  worry, 

And  wealth  isn't  all  in  gold, 
Mortgages,  stocks  and  ten  per  cent, 
But  in  simple  ways  and  sweet  content, 


24  THE    CORN    LADY 

Few  wants,  pure  hopes  and  noble  ends, 
Some  land  to  till  and  a  few  good  friends, 

Like  you,  old  Bay, 

And  you,  old  Gray, 
That's  what  I've  learned  by  going  away." 

And  a  happy  man  is  Farmer  John — 
Oh,  a  rich  and  happy  man  is  he! 
He  sees  the  peas  and  pumpkins  growing, 
The  corn  in  tassel,  the  buckwheat  blowing, 

And  fruit  on  vine  and  tree; 
The  large,  kind  oxen  look  their  thanks 
As  he  rubs  their  foreheads  and  pats  their  flanks ; 
The  doves  light  round  him  and  strut  and  coo; 
Says  Farmer  John,  "I'll  take  you,  too; 

And  you,  old  Bay, 

And  you,  old  Gray, 
Next  time  I  travel  so  far  away." 

— Trowbridge. 

The  whole  school  has  a  part  in  it  and  the 
front  of  the  schoolroom  is  the  barnyard.  One 
of  the  big  boys  read  the  play  and  the  rest 
acted  their  parts.  One  youngster  delighted 
to  be  the  dog  and  how  he  did  jump  and  bark 
at  the  right  place !  The  little  primaries  were 
the  doves.  Two  of  the  girls  were  "Old  Bay" 
and  "Old  'Gray."  When  my  Tennessee  boy 
was  through  reading  it  the  other  day,  I  said : 

"Do  you  like  the  farm  best?" 

"Indeed,  I  do,"  he  answered. 


THE    CORN    LADY  25 

My  intermediate  reading  class  likes  the 
poem: 

THE  BOY  WITH  THE  HOE 

'Say,  how  do  you  hoe  your  row,  young  chap, 
Say,  how  do  you  hoe  your  row? 

Do  you  hoe  it  fair, 

Do  you  hoe  it  square, 

Do  you  hoe  it  the  best  you  know? 
Do  you  cut  the  weeds  as  you  ought  to  do 
And  leave  what's  worth  while  there? 

The  harvest  you  garner  depends  on  you, 

Are  you  working  it  on  the  square?" 

"Are  you  killing  the  noxious   weeds,  young  chap. 
Are  3Tou  making  it  straight  and  clean? 

Are  you  going  straight 

At  a  hustling  gait, 

Do  you  scatter  all  that's  mean? 
Do  you  laugh  and  sing  and  whistle  shrill 
And  dance  a  step  or  two? 

The  road  you  hoe  leads  up  a  hill ; 

The  harvest  is  up  to  you." 

I  have  made  some  "Farm  Charts"  for  my 
little  people  and  I'll  send  you  some  pictures 
of  them.  Of  course,  one  cannot  do  many 
things  for  children  until  she  knows  them, 
but  I  believe  they  are  already  learning  to 
love  the  farm.  There  are  so  many  little 
ways  in  which  to  interest  the  children  in  the 


26 


THE   CORN    LADY 


found 


i 


ear 


corn 


good 


papa 


I    found   a    good    ear  of    corn! 
Papa    tested    and    planted    it. 
It   had  even    rows. 
I     like    good    corn    and    some   day 
I   will    stow  it  on  my   farm. 


A   READING    CHART 


THE    CORN    LADY  27 

country.  I  wish  you  could  see  all  the  dif- 
ferent products  that  they  have  brought  for 
our  "farm  corner" — apples,  corn,  gourds, 
pumpkins  and  flowers. 

I  have  written  to  the  Extension  Depart- 
ment of  the  State  College  of  Agriculture 
and,  also,  to  the  National  Department  of 
Agriculture  for  all  the  helps  they  have  for 
teaching  agriculture  and  home  economics  in 
country  schools.  Also,  I  have  asked  them 
for  information  in  regard  to  the  gravest 
problems  of  the  farms  and  the  homes  in  this 
part  of  our  state.  They  have  sent  me  some 
very  helpful  printed  matter  and  have  writ- 
ten letters  showing  their  great  interest.  And, 
Daddy,  you  should  see  me  devour  the  farm 
paper  I  have  subscribed  for.  I  read  it  even 
before  I  do  the  Ladies'  Home  Journal  and 
I  am  getting  so  many  helpful  things  from 
it. 

We  are  planning  to  do  so  much  this 
month.  I  will  tell  you  about  it  in  my  next 
letter.  Lovingly  your 

Country  Teacher. 


28  THE    CORN    LADY 


Wheaton,  Iowa,  November  1,  1910 

Dear  Daddy: — We  have  just  finished 
putting  in  our  tulip  bulbs.  The  boys 
brought  their  spades  and  rakes  from  home 
and  have  been  working  before  school  and  at 
recesses  all  week  getting  the  ground  ready. 
We  put  our  bed  up  close  to  the  schoolhouse, 
on  the  south  side.  Each  of  the  youngsters 
has  two  bulbs  that  he  calls  his  own  and  we 
planted  them  to-day,  during  the  afternoon 
recess.  Then,  we  covered  the  bed  over  with 
leaves  and  left  it  for  the  winter,  knowing 
that  through  the  cold  the  roots  would  be 
reaching  down  and  gathering,,  strength  for 
the  burst  of  gold  and  crimson  in  the  early 
spring. 

The  county  superintendent  sent  us  our 
tulip  bulbs.  They  were  given  by  a  man  who 
is  interested  in  beautiful  school  grounds- 
enough  for  every  school — six  thousand  bulbs. 
The  superintendent  has  a  Babcock  Milk 
Tester,  too,  which  she  sends  out  to  the  dif- 
ferent schools  that  wish  to  learn  how  to  use 
it.     She  let  us  have  it  for  two  weeks  last 


THE    CORN    LADY 


29 


month.  I  was  very  glad,  indeed,  as  there  are 
two  men  in  the  district  who  have  quite  a 
number  of  cows. 

The  pupils  brought  samples  of  the  milk 
from  their  cows  at  home  and  we  tested  it  the 


PART    OF    THE    TULIP     BED 


first  thing  in  the  morning  to  find  the  per- 
centage of  butter  fat  that  it  contained.  We 
found  some  cows  that  tested  as  low  as  two 
and  a  half  per  cent,  and  others  that  tested 
as  high  at  six  and  six  tenths  per  cent.  We 
had  some  problems  from  this  and  actually 


30 


THE   CORN    LADY 


found  out  that  the  cow  that  gave  only  two 
and  a  half  per  cent  was  not  paying  her 
board.  The  man  who  has  the  largest  num- 
ber of  cows  came  up  and  asked  me  if  he 


OUR    TULIP     BED 


could  use  the  tester  after  we  were  through 
with  it  at  school.  I  told  him  I  would  ask 
the  superintendent  and  she  said  he  might; 
so  he  took  it  and  tested  his  cows  very  care- 
fully with  the  help  of  his   son,  who  had 


THE    CORN    LADY  31 

learned  to  do  so  at  school.  Pretty  soon  I 
heard  that  he  had  sold  six  of  his  cows  and 
bought  some  splendid,  high-testing  Guern- 
seys to  take  their  places  in  his  herd.  Isn't 
that  good?  He  was  just  paying  for  the 
privilege  of  milking  those  scrubs,  and  the 
good  cows  will  furnish  a  profit  for  buying 
more  books  and  other  things  that  his  boys 
and  girls  need. 

October  tenth  was  set  by  our  State  Col- 
lege of  Agriculture  as  Seed  Corn  Picking 
Day.  I  explained  how  important  it  was  that 
farmers  pick  their  seed  corn  early,  before 
the  first  frosts  can  catch  it  and  kill  the  germ 
so  that  it  will  not  grow  next  Spring,  and 
asked  the  pupils  that  day  to  each  go  out  in 
the  fields  at  home  and  pick  for  me  the  best 
ear  of  seed  corn  they  could  find  and  bring 
it  to  school  the  next  morning.  Then  I  asked 
one  of  the  fathers,  who  was  a  good  seed  corn 
judge,  to  come  and  talk  to  the  children  on 
the  good  points  of  an  ear  of  corn  for  seed. 
He  came  and  gave  a  splendid,  sensible  talk, 
illustrating  it  with  the  ears  of  corn  the  chil- 
dren had  brought.  You  should  have  seen 
their  eyes  shine — the  children's — who  found 
this  information  about  real  things  most  in- 
teresting; the  man  who  was  doing  something 


32  THE    CORN    LADY 

for  his  school  and,  well,  the  teacher  was 
happy  enough  for  her  eyes  to  shine,  too. 

The  next  day,  for  language,  we  wrote  an 
account  of  what  we  had  learned  about  corn. 
I  never  had  secured  before  such  clear  ex- 
pression; such  good  sentences,  or  correct 
punctuation,  writing  and  such  neat  and 
thorough  work.  I  had  them  take  their  work 
home  when  it  was  completed,  and  I  heard 
many  good  words  about  it.  Best  of  all,  I 
saw  that  most  of  the  farmers  had  picked 
their  seed  corn  carefully  from  the  strongest 
stalks  in  the  field  and  hung  it  up;  not  wait- 
ing to  throw  out  the  best  ears  from  the 
wagons  after  the  freezing  weather  had  killed 
much  of  it. 

In  geography,  we  have  drawn  maps  of 
all  the  farms,  showing  the  fields  and  what 
had  been  planted  in  each  for  the  past  four 
years.  In  connection  with  this,  we  had  some 
study  of  soils  and  considered  the  importance 
of  crop  rotations  in  keeping  the  soil  fertile. 
One  of  the  boys  brought  some  alfalfa  and  we 
examined  the  little  tubercles  that  draw  the 
nitrogen  into  the  soil  from  the  air.  Some 
of  the  fields  in  this  district  have  been  planted 
to  corn  for  the  last  ten  years,  because  corn 
is  the  "money  crop"  as  they  call  it;  yet  the 


THE    CORN    LADY 


33 


farmers  who  do  this  seem  to  be  making  but 
little  money. 

We  have  drawn  maps  of  the  township,  in- 
dicating the  amount  of  products  along  every 


LOOKING    FOR    SEED    EARS 


line,  as  shown  in  the  assessor's  books  at  the 
county  auditor's  office.  Then  we  drew  the 
county,  showing  the  banner  townships  for 
corn,  oats,  hay,  wheat,  alfalfa,  apples  and 


34  THE    CORN    LADY 

other  fruit.    And  we  did  the  same  thing  with 
the  state,  showing  the  banner  counties. 

I  wish  you  could  come  and  see  us.  We 
are  having  the  best  school — and  it's  a  coun- 
try school,  too.  I  think  in  its  strength — its 
open-heartedness — its  wholesome  spirit — 
and  in  the  things  we  are  learning,  you  would 
know  that  it  belonged  with  broad  fields  and 
country  freedom. 

I  tell  you  it  is  great  fun  to  be  just 

A  Country  Teacher. 


THE    CORN    LADY  35 


W heat on,  Iowa,  December  4,  1910 

Dearest  Daddy: — There  is  so  much  to 
tell  that  I  hardly  know  where  to  begin.  But 
I  think  you'd  like  best-  to  hear  about  our 
"Farm  and  Home  Day."  As  it  came  along 
toward  the  end  of  November,  the  children 
were  all  wishing  for  a  program.  We  talked 
it  over  and  decided  that  we  would  have  an 
exhibit  of  corn ;  and  of  cooking  and  sewing. 
Each  boy  was  to  bring  the  best  single  ear  of 
corn  he  could  find  and,  also,  the  best  ten 
ears.  The  girls  were  to  bake  a  loaf  of  bread 
and  some  cookies.  They  were  to  make  two 
buttonholes  on  gingham  and  a  work  apron. 
The  one  having  the  best  in  each  class  was  to 
get  a  blue  ribbon,  and  the  next  best  a  red 
ribbon. 

Then,  too,  we  thought  for  our  program 
we  would  have  some  good  essays  on  prac- 
tical subjects  such  as:  "How  to  Make  Good 
Bread;"  "The  Benefit  of  Pure  Air  in  Our 
Homes;"  "The  Selecting  and  Storing  of 
Seed  Corn;"  "Crop  Rotations  to  Keep  the 
Soil  Fertile;"  "Why  I  Like  to  Live  on  the 


36  THE    CORN    LADY 

Farm"  and  "The  Use  of  the  Babcock  Milk 
Tester."  Each  pupil  selected  what  they 
were  most  interested  in  and  looked  up  all 
they  could  in  farm  journals,  bulletins  and 
papers.  They  asked  their  fathers  and  neigh- 
bors for  pointers,  too. 

The  little  people  learned  some  songs. 
"The  Whistling  Farmer  Boy"  was  their  mas- 
ter piece.  Then  they  had  a  corn  drill, 
dressed  to  look  like  ears  of  corn  and  the  dear 
little  girl,  our  school  baby,  held  an  ear  of 
corn  and  played  she  was  the  "Mother  Ear." 

Almost  everyone  came  for  the  afternoon. 
I  had  selected  a  committee  of  men  and  an- 
other of  women,  who  had  no  children  in 
school,  to  judge  the  exhibits;  and  I  had  taken 
all  the  names  off  from  the  entries  and  num- 
bered them.  After  the  ribbons  had  been  put 
on,  we  had  the  program,  and  then  we  told 
whose  corn  and  sewing  and  cooking  had 
won. 

How  can  I  tell  you  how  glad  I  was  when 
I  saw  that  the  blue  ribbon  had  gone  on  the 
single  ear  that  my  mountain  boy  had  selected 
— and  on  the  ten  ears  that  the  boy  with  the 
dark  face  and  the  dark  past  had  brought." 
Max,  the  mountaineer,  prizes  that  little  blue 
ribbon  more  than  anything  he  ever  had  be- 


THE    CORN    LADY  37 

fore.  I  could  see  all  the  royal  strength  of 
his  blue-blooded  Scotch  Calvinist  ancestors 
in  him,  as  he  stood  so  straight  after  school 
and  said: 

"Teacher,  I  wouldn't  take  ten  dollars  for 
this  ribbon  and  this  ear  of  corn." 

And  Edward,  the  dark-faced  boy,  looked 
almost  sunshiny  as  he  asked: 

"Now,  will  we  get  to  take  our  corn  to  the 
County  Farmers'  Institute?" 

"Surely  we  will,  Edward,"  I  answered. 
"And  you  have  all  done  so  well  that,  per- 
haps, we  can  win  the  beautiful  trophy  for 
our  school  district." 

Florence  had  the  best  apron.  I  haven't 
told  you  about  her.  She  is  the  oldest  girl  in 
a  big  family.  Her  father  is  the  kind  of  man 
who  is  always  "agin  things."  They  live  off 
the  road  and  seldom  visit  anyone.  For  years 
this  man  has  made  trouble  in  school.  If  one 
of  his  children — he  has  six  in  school — is  rep- 
rimanded, he  comes  up  and  tells  the  "school 
ma'am"  what  he  thinks  of  her  for  punish- 
ing his  children  when  they  haven't  done  a 
thing  wrong.  He  thinks  what  was  good 
enough  for  him  is  good  enough  for  his 
"younguns."  He  regards  school  taxes  as 
altogether  too  high  and  has  been  waiting  for 


38 


THE    CORN    LADY 


Florence  to  grow  big  enough  so  she  could 
work  out. 

Well,  Florence  wanted  to  make  an  apron 
but  her  father  wouldn't  let  her  buy  any 
cloth.    He  said  he   didn't  believe   in   such 


£}-  !?  - 


THE    BOYS     FARM    CLUB    STUDYING    CORN 


things  having  any  place  in  school  anyway. 
So  I  bought  some  pretty  gingham  and  gave 
it  to  her,  and  showed  her  how  to  cut  and 
make  her  apron.  She  had  never  had  a 
thimble  on  her  ringer,  but  she  worked  so 


THE    CORN    LADY  39 

carefully  and  patiently.  She  would  come  as 
early  as  she  could  in  order  to  sew  before 
school  commenced  in  the  morning  and, 
sometimes  she  would  study  so  hard  that  she 
would  get  some  extra  time  for  her  sewing. 
She  was  doing  much  better  work  in  all  her 
studies,  too. 

She  finished  her  apron  a  week  before  the 
entertainment,  and  took  it  home  and  washed 
and  ironed  it.  It  was  just  beautiful.  Every 
stitch  seemed  perfect.  I  met  her  father  the 
evening  before  our  Farm  and  Home  Day 
and  urged  him  to  be  sure  to  come.  I  asked 
him  if  he  had  seen  what  a  beautiful  apron 
Florence  had  made.  He  scowled  and 
growled  out: 

"I  don't  take  no  stock  in  sich  things.  They 
don't  have  no  place  in  school  nohow." 

He  was  so  big  and  so  cross  that  the  tears 
started  in  my  eyes.  I  just  tried  to  smile  and 
hurried  on  home. 

The  next  forenoon,  when  the  blue  ribbon 
had  been  put  on  Florence's  apron,  she  came 
up  to  me  and  when  I  leaned  down,  she  put 
her  arms  around  my  neck  and  whispered: 

"Teacher,  please  may  I  go  home  and  tell 
ma  and  pa  about  my  apron?" 

"Certainly  you  may,  and  tell  them  to  come 


40  THE    CORN    LADY 

this  afternoon  if  they  possibly  can.  Do  not 
stay.  Just  go  long  enough  to  tell  them." 
And  away  she  flew  down  in  the  woods  to 
the  little  gray  house  where  the  man  lived 
"who  didn't  take  no  stock  in  sich  things." 

Florence  didn't  come  back  alone;  she 
brought  her  father  along,  who  looked  quite 
good-natured  and  her  little  bent  mother,  with 
her  tired  eyes  and  peevish  baby.  I  took 
them  over  to  the  apron — the  best  of  the 
fifteen  aprons  that  were  on  exhibit — and 
said :  g 

"It  is  such  a  beautiful  apron;  every  stitch 
is  just  perfect." 

"Yes,  it  is  nice,"  the  little  mother  said 
proudly.  "But  I  never  could  get  her  to  sew 
any  at  home.  She  wouldn't  take  any  inter- 
est in  it." 

"She's  a  pretty  smart  gal,"  the  father 
added,  "and  I  want  you  to  jest  take  her  as 
far  as  you  can;  take  her  as  far  as  you  can." 
And  all  the  little  brothers  and  sisters,  and 
the  big  brother  stood  around  and  looked 
proud,  too. 

The  little  girl,  Gladys,  who  made  the  best 
buttonholes,  is  an  orphan.  That  is,  her 
mother  died  last  year  and  since  then  she  has 
been  trying  to  keep  house  for  her  father  and 


THE    CORN    LADY 


41 


go  to  school.  She  is  only  twelve  years  old. 
When  she  was  working  on 
her  buttonholes,  she  came  to 
me  and  said: 

"Mother  told  me  once 
that  grandmother  could 
make  buttonholes  so  well 
that  you  couldn't  tell  the 
right  side  from  the  wrong 
side.  I  am  trying  to  learn 
to  make  them  as  well  as  she 
could  9 

Bless  her  heart,  I  am  sure 
if  her  mother  knew  what 
good  buttonholes  her 
daughter  did  make,  she 
would  be  glad.  I  noticed, 
too,  that  her  dresses  which 
had  been  pinned  up  with 
buttons  off,  and  her  hair 
that  was  not  always  combed 
well,  became  far  neater;  and  the  work  at 
home,  which  she  had  always  seemed  to 
dread,  began  to  be  less  of  a  burden. 

The  girl  who  had  the  best  loaf  of  bread 
is  the  youngest  in  a  family  of  eleven  girls. 
They  are  all  grown  up  and  out  of  school 


CHAMPION 
BREAD    MAKER 


42 


THE    CORN    LADY 


and  she  should,  really,  be  in  high  school  this 
year;  but  she  is  not  very  well  and  so  had  to 
stay  at  home  another 
year.  I  do  not  claim 
the  least  credit  for  her 
good  bread;  her 
mother  is  a  splendid 
cook  and  taught  her 
how  to  make  it,  but  the 
girl  is  certainly  full  of 
new  hope  and  ambi- 
tions, since  she  gained 
this  recognition. 

And -the  cooky  girl 
is  just  a  dear  little 
roly-poly,  healthy 
country  girl  from  a 
good  home.  Her 
mother  says  she  is  very 
glad  that  she  is  getting 
interested,  though. 
Her  father,  who  is  a 
prosperous,  hard-head- 
ed farmer  said: 

"It  just  seems 
mighty  worth  while  to 
me  to  get  the  girls  in-  THE  COOKY  GIRL 

terested  in  home  things.    For  what's  the  use 


THE    CORN    LADY  43 

of  farmers  raising  better  stock  and  more 
corn,  except  to  have  money  to  make  better 
homes  ?  And  how  can  we  have  better  homes 
unless  the  girls  are  interested  in  and  care  for 
such  things?" 

There  were  some  good  essays  on  the  pro- 
gram. How  we  did  laugh  when  one  of  the 
girls  read  the  following  in  her  essay  on 
"Why  I  Like  to  Live  on  the  Farm:"  " 

"I  milk  four  cows  every  morning  before 
breakfast.  I  like  to  live  on  the  farm  because 
I  can  sing  and  whistle  as  loud  as  I  want  to 
while  I  milk  them,  and  I  do  not  bother  any- 
one. In  fact,  it  seems  the  louder  I  sing,  the 
more  milk  they  give." 

We  are  going  to  take  all  our  best  work 
to  the  County  Farmers'  Institute  next  month 
and  see  if  we  cannot  win  the  county  school 
district  trophy  that  is  offered  to  the  school 
district  making  the  best  display  at  the  Boys' 
and  Girls'  Corn  Show  and  Industrial  Ex- 
position held  then.  The  boys  are  going  to 
compete  for  a  place  on  the  Boys'  Corn 
Judging  Team,  which  represents  our  county 
at  a  state  contest,  to  be  held  at  the  State  Col- 
lege of  Agriculture  in  January.  We  are  get- 
ting all  the  information  we  can,  and  the  boys 
are  studying  nights  on  it. 


44 


THE    CORN    LADY 


I  think  I  am  going  home  for  Christmas. 
We  haven't  had  any  vacation  yet  this  year 
and  I  believe  we  will  have  two  weeks  then. 
Tom  will  be  home  from  college,  too;  so  you 
and  the  little  mother  can  expect  a  merry 
time. 

The  time  is  just  flying  along,  and  your 
girl  is  still  a  happy 

Country  Teacher. 


HOMEWARD    BOUND 


THE    CORN    LADY  <s 


Wheaton,  Iowa,  December  20,  1910 

Father  Dear: — Our  school  did  win  the 
trophy  for  having  the  best  work  from  our 
district  at  the  County  Farmers'  Institute. 
When  we  heard  it,  we  marched  out  and  ran 
up  our  school  flag.  Everyone  helped,  for 
all  the  entries  that  mothers,  fathers,  big 
brothers  and  sisters  and  hired  men  made, 
counted;  as  well  as  those  the  school  children 
made. 

A  hired  man  from  one  of  our  farms 
showed  the  best  corn  in  the  hired  men's  class. 
I  asked  him  where  he  learned  to  know  good 
corn,  and  he  said  he  had  learned  it  reading 
out  of  those  bulletins  Jim  brought  home  from 
school  with  him. 

We  had  a  great  many  things  in  our  ex- 
hibit: Aprons,  cushion  covers,  buttonholes, 
hemming,  bread,  cookies,  cakes,  farm  devices, 
model  chicken  houses,  a  model  country 
schoolhouse  and  grounds,  wheat,  oats,  pota- 
toes and  corn. 

Florence's  apron  was  the  best  in  the 
county,   and  there  were  hundreds  entered. 


46 


THE    CORN    LADY 


Daddy,  can  you  think  how  proud  and  happy 
her  father  is?  He  is  fully  converted  and 
can't  help  enough,  now.  When  they  found 
that  our  district  had  won  the  trophy,  the  di- 


THE    STATE    TROPHY 


rectors  gave  us  a  day  to  attend  the  Institute. 
There  was  a  splendid  program,  with  speak- 
ers from  the  State  College  of  Agriculture, 
who  spoke  on  "Good  Roads,"  "Crop  Rota- 


THE    CORN    LADY  47 

tions,"  and  "What  They  Can  and  Cannot 
Accomplish."  A  lady  from  the  State  Col- 
lege spoke  on  "Modern  Improvements  for 
Country  Homes."    It  was  all  very  good. 

And  the  exhibit — of  course,  we  expected 
it  to  be  a  grand  exhibit ;  but  it  surpassed  our 
greatest  expectations.  When  we  saw  the  blue 
ribbon  on  Carl's  potatoes  that  he  had  not 
planted  until  so  late  that  we  thought  they 
would  freeze ;  the  blue  ribbon,  too,  on  Max's 
single  ear  with  its  beautiful  straight  rows — 
the  best  out  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  ears ; 
another  prize  ribbon  floating  with  the  flag 
on  the  flagstaff  of  our  model  country  school- 
ground;  the  red  ribbon  on  Floyd's  handy 
farm  knots  and  the  honor  given  to  Florence's 
apron  that  we  were  all  so  proud  of,  we  were 
just  sure  it  was  the  most  marvelous  exhibit 
we  had  ever  even  dreamed  of. 

There  was  a  corn  house,  where  the  bushels 
were  exhibited  from  the  boys  who  had  tried 
in  the  acre  yield  contest.  Standing  near  the 
corn  house  was  the  happy,  little  white-headed 
twelve  year  old  Anton,  who  had  succeeded 
in  raising  the  largest  number  of  bushels  to 
the  acre  and  would  get  a  prize  of  fifty  dol- 
lars from  a  bank  interested  in  boys.  Which 
fifty  dollars  Anton  told  me  he  was  going  to 


48 


THE    CORN   LADY 


put  at  interest  in  the  bank  to  help  buy  a 
farm  with  some  day.  Anton  lives  on  the 
other  side  of  the  county,  but  we  are  all  very 
proud  of  his  record. 

By  the  cooking  and  sewing  exhibits  were 
many  bright-faced  girls,  with  their  fathers 
and  mothers  usually  near  by.    The  cooking 


Mm 

v  -\ " "^H 

"3 

A 

vl 

,    r  --'  _' 

'    V 

\ 

•  # 

„_"*:.,•.«.  *>W" 

^^^i 

H 

RAISING    THE    FLAG 


exhibit  room,  I  noticed,  was  very  popular 
with  the  men.  I  wonder  why?  Would  you 
have  made  such  a  bee  line  for  that  if  you 
could  have  been  here?  Tom  says  he  is  sure 
that  he  would,  for  he  thinks  cooking  is  one 
of  the  fine  arts.  I'll  see  if  I  cannot  learn 
more  about  it,  myself.     I  heard  one  little 


THE    CORN    LADY 


49 


girl  say:  "Next  year  I  will  bring  many 
more  things."  It  makes  them  try  so  much 
harder  when  thev  see  what  other  children  can 
do. 

The  trophy  is  beautiful  and  we  are  very 
thankful  that  we  were  able  to  win  it.  I  will 
send  you  a  picture  of  it.  We  have  to  win 
it  three  years  in  succession  to  keep  it  always. 
We  will  surely  try  to  do  this. 


PRIZE    TEN    EARS    OF    CORN 


I  must  not  forget  to  tell  you  that  Max, 
the  mountaineer,  won  a  place  on  the  boys' 
corn  judging  team.  He  will  have  his  ex- 
penses paid  to  the  State  College  for  a  two 
weeks'  short  course,  and  while  there  he  will 
compete  for  the  state  trophy  on  a  team  with 
two  other  country  boys  from  our  county. 
The  trophy  is  awarded  to  the  best  boys'  corn 


SO  THE    CORN    LADY 

judging  team  in  the  state.  He  will  start 
the  day  after  Christmas.  After  school  was 
out  to-night,  he  came  to  me  and  tried  to 
thank  me  for  helping  him.  He  has  that  fine, 
sensitive  southern  face  and  such  quiet  man- 
liness.   I  said: 

"The  best  way  you  can  thank  me,  Max, 
is  just  by  keeping  on  and  trying  your  very 
best  to  make  use  of  every  opportunity  that 
comes  to  you." 

"I  will  try,"  he  replied,  quietly. 

I  have  a  new  name.  Last  week  I  attended 
my  first  box  supper.  The  young  ladies  bring 
boxes  trimmed  so  beautifully  with  paper 
and  artificial  flowers  and  filled  with  good 
things  to  eat;  and  the  young  men  bid  them 
in.  Of  course,  I  took  a  box.  I  had  some 
paper  napkins  with  a  design  of  ears  of  corn 
on  them.  I  decorated  my  box  with  these, 
making  a  border  all  around  it  of  the  ears 
of  corn  cut  out — and  then  I  put  a  nice  ear 
of  corn  on  top,  tied  with  ribbons.  It  was 
really  pretty,  and  full  of  good  things  to  eat. 

When  the  auctioneer  put  it  up,  I  heard 
someone  say:  "Whose  box  is  that?"  and  two 
or  three  answered  at  once: 

"Why,  don't  you  know?  It  is  the  Corn 
Lady's."    The  Corn  Lady's  box  brought  a 


THE    CORN    LADY 


51 


good  round  sum  and  now  everyone  that 
knows  me  well  is  taking  up  the  name  and 
they  say  it  in  the  nicest  way,  with  a  friendly 
look  and  a  tone  that  seems  to  say,  "We  like 


SELECTING    PRIZE-WINNERS 


you  quite  well,  Miss  Corn  Lady.  You  are 
interested  in  the  things  we  are  interested 
in.    You  are  one  of  us." 


52  THE    CORN    LADY 

And  Daddy,  maybe  it  seems  strange  to 
you,  but  this  girl  of  yours,  because  she  likes 
the  land  and  the  people  who  raise  the  corn, 
likes  to  be  called 

The  Corn  Lady. 


TESTING   CORN 


THE   CORN    LADY  53 


Ames,  Iowa,  January  6, 1911 

Dear  Daddy: — Here  I  am  at  the  State 
College  of  Agriculture  for  the  short  course. 
I  wish  I  might  have  stayed  at  home  longer, 
but  it  was  so  good  to  be  there  for  Christmas, 
anyway ;  and  you  and  mother  were  so  splen- 
did to  urge  me  to  secure  this  work. 

It  is  a  wonderful  place  up  here,  with  its 
great  buildings,  fine  equipment  and  intelli- 
gent teachers,  to  train  students  in  the  science 
of  agriculture.  Just  now  it  is  vacation  time 
for  the  regular  college  students,  and  there 
are  six  hundred  farmers  with  their  wives, 
boys  and  girls  taking  the  two  weeks'  short 
course.  The  men  and  boys  have  classes  in 
corn  and  stock  judging;  lectures  on  soil  and 
farm  machinery;  and  many  other  subjects. 
The  girls  and  women  have  lessons  in  cook- 
ing, sewing  and  home  making. 

I  am  playing  boy — like  I  used  to — and 
taking  the  work  in  corn  and  stock  judging. 
I  had  to  live  up  to  my  name,  you  see.  I  am 
going  to  try  for  a  corn  judge's  certificate  at 
the  end  of  the  two  weeks.  Do  you  suppose 
I  can  get  one? 

There  are  several  hundred  farmers  in  my 


54 


THE    CORN    LADY 


class,  and  seventy-five  in  my  section.  They 
are  all  very  good  to  me  and  try  to  show  me 
about  the  corn,  and  explain  the  different 
points  to  me.     We  are  learning  to  use  the 


1m 


¥  i&*  1 


■  \  ■  -,<*'•> 


2  - 1       t*\l  -1 


LEARNING    TO    JUDGE    HORSES 


corn- judging  score-card  and  there  are  so 
many,  many  things  to  consider.  The  work 
is  'very  practical,  and  the  old  gray-headed 
farmers  seem  to  be  just  as  keenly  interested 
in  it  as  the  young  men. 

This  morning  there  was  a  farmer  in  the 
corn- judging  room  who  came  up  and  spoke 


THE    CORN    LADY  55 

to  me  before  the  class.  At  first  I  could  not 
think  who  he  was.     He  laughed  and  said: 

"Don't  you  remember  me?  Many  a  time 
I  have  seen  you  walking  over  the  hills  to 
school  in  the  country."  Then  I  knew  him. 
It  was  Fred  Walker,  the  man  whose  father 
gave  him  such  a  big  farm  next  to  ours,  and 
who  always  worked  so  hard.  He  told  me 
that  he  had  been  coming  up  here  for  five 
years  to  the  short  course.  He  said  he  wished 
his  father  had  given  him  a  chance  to  go 
through  the  college. 

"It  would  have  been  nice,"  I  said,  "but  he 
left  you  a  farm,  didn't  he?" 

"Yes,  he  left  me  a  farm;  but  he  worked 
early  and  late  and  took  me  out  of  school  to 
help  work  to  save  money  to  buy  the  farm. 
I'd  rather  have  had  a  chance  to  get  an 
education  here  than  to  have  the  farm.  I 
tell  you,  my  boy  is  going  to  have  a  chance, 
and  so  are  all  the  other  children  down  at  our 
country  school,  I  hope."  And  he  said  it  with 
that  hungry  look  that  comes  into  men's  eyes 
when  they  see  a  chance  that  they  have  lost 
forever. 

We  are  almost  ready  to  start  home  and 
are  taking  the  state  boys'  corn- judging 
trophy  with  us  to  our  county.     I  took  ex- 


56 


THE    CORN    LADY 


animation  for  the  corn  judge's  certificate, 
but  will  not  know  for  some  time  whether  I 
passed  or  not. 

All  these  farmers  and  their  sons  will  be 
going  back  to  their  farms  to-day  with  a  new 
vision  of  what  farming  means — not  only  in 
greater  profit — but  in  better  standards  of 
living.  We  cannot  estimate  the  good  that 
our  College  of  Agriculture  is  doing,  both  in 
its  regular  work  and  in  the  message  that  the 
Extension  Department  is  carrying  to  the  peo- 
ple. If  I  go  again  next  year,  as  I  am  hop- 
ing to  do,  I  expect  to  take  the  work  in  home 
economics,  but  I  am  so  glad  that  I  took  the 
corn  and  stock  this  time. 

Back  to  school  again  Monday,  and  I 
am  anxious  for  Monday  to  come  now. 

Your  own 

Helen. 


THE    CORN-JUDGING    CONTEST 


THE    CORN    LADY  57 


Wheaton,  Iowa,  February  5,  1911 

Dear  Daddy: — Well,  we  organized  our 
regular  class  in  agriculture  as  soon  as  school 
started  after  the  holiday  vacation.  The  big 
boys  were  all  present  and  I  thought  they 
surely  should  have  some  definite  work.  We 
are  taking  up  a  text-book  on  agriculture  and 
this,  together  with  experiments  and  observa- 
tions in  the  neighborhood,  talks  by  promi- 
nent farmers,  and  use  of  the  farm  bulletins, 
makes  our  work  very  interesting.  The  boys 
are  keeping  regular  note-books  for  their  work 
in  agriculture. 

The  girls  have  organized  a  Girls'  Home 
Club  and  we  meet  each  Friday  afternoon 
for  a  half -hour  after  school.  Some  of  the 
girls  in  the  district  who  cannot  attend  school, 
come  in  for  this,  too.  We  are  not  trying  to 
do  any  very  complex  work;  but  the  simple, 
homely  things  that  we  are  learning,  we  are 
learning  to  do  well.  We  have  taken  up 
patching  and  darning;  hemming  and  mak- 
ing buttonholes.  We  have  thoroughly  studied 
bread-making  and  the  girls  have  all  tried  it 


58  THE    CORN    LADY 

at  home.  Butter-making,  sweeping  and 
dusting,  and  even  dish-washing  has  had  a 
share  of  our  attention.  The  mothers  have 
helped  us  in  many  ways.  One  little  girl  said 
to  me  at  the  last  club  meeting:  "Isn't  it 
strange,  there  seems  to  be  a  right  and  a 
wrong  way  to  do  everything?" 

I  mentioned  our  using  the  "Farm  Bul- 
letins" wjth  our  work  in  the  agriculture  class. 
The  older  pupils  wrote  to  our  State  College 
of  Agriculture  and  to  the  National  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C, 
and  secured  a  large  assortment  of  them. 
Then  Edward,  who  has  come  to  be  our  right- 
hand  man  in  school,  made  a  rack  for  them 
out  of  strips  of  wood  and  fastened  it  to  the 
wall.  We  sorted  the  bulletins  according  to 
subjects  and  filed  them  in  the  rack  where 
they  can  easily  be  used  for  reference  by  the 
class  in  agriculture,  geography,  reading  and 
physiology.  In  all  the  classes  from  fifth 
grade  up,  we  have  been  having  these  farm 
problems  once  a  week.  They  bring  in  many 
of  the  problems  from  home.  I  enclose  a 
page  of  the  problems  we  have  had  this  week, 
so  you  can  see  what  they  are  like. 

One  German  father  stopped  me  in  the 
road  the  other  day  to  tell  me  how  glad  he 


THE    CORN    LADY  59 

was  that  his  boy  was  learning  arithmetic 
down  at  the  school  that  he  could  use.  "Why," 
he  said,  "John  used  to  come  home  at  night 
and  I  would  give  him  the  scale  tickets  to  fig- 
ure up  and  he  couldn't  do  it — nor  the  cream 
checks,  either.  He  said  he  could  figure  it 
out  if  it  were  about  oranges  like  it  was  in 
the  arithmetic  book,  but  he  wasn't  used  to 
working  problems  with  corn  and  cream  in 
them.  He  used  to  say  when  he  was  trying 
to  figure  out  his  problems  for  to-morrow, 
'Pa,  do  you  times  this,  or  is  it  into?'  He 
don't  ask  such  silly  questions  now.  You've 
taught  him  to  really  know  what  he  is  doing 
in  arithmetic.  I  tell  you  what,  I  am  mighty 
thankful  to  you  for  it,  too." 

John  is  a  bright  boy,  all  right,  but  it  was 
necessary  for  him  to  learn  to  do  some  real 
thinking,  and  that  is  what  he  is  doing  now. 

So,  if  you  want  some  expert  farm  book- 
keeping done,  just  come  down  and  call  on 
some  of  my  boys  and  girls.  I  think  they 
would  enjoy  doing  it  for  you,  too. 

Lovingly  your 

Country  Girl. 


60  THE    CORN    LADY 


Wheaton,  Iowa,  March  2, 1911 

Dear  Daddy: — I  haven't  told  you  about 
our  literary  society,  have  I?  We  have  been 
holding  meetings  every  two  weeks  since  the 
first  of  December.  We  meet  on  Friday  even- 
ings and  are  organized  in  the  regular,  old- 
fashioned  way.  I  am  the  secretary  and  a 
young  farmer,  who  lives  in  the  next  district, 
is  president.  We  have  had  some  good  meet- 
ings, with  speeches,  debates,  readings  and 
singing.  Many  of  the  people  of  the  district, 
who  were  very  much  afflicted  with  stage- 
fright  at  first,  are  now  so  that  they  can  hold 
their  own  before  an  audience  in  a  dignified, 
efficient  way. 

We  have  debated  everything  from  con- 
solidated schools  to  parcels  post  and  had 
talks  and  essays  about  "Alfalfa,"  "Good 
Roads,"  "Care  and  Feeding  of  Hogs," 
"How  to  Get  Rid  of  the  House  Fly,"  "The 
Use  of  the  Gasoline  Engine  on  the  Farm" 
and  many,  many  other  things.  I  am  so  glad 
we  have  had  this  literary  society.  It  seems 
to  me  that  country  people  need  leaders;  the 
ability   to   express   themselves   better;   and 


THE    CORN    LADY 


61 


these  things  we  are  gaining.  Best  of  all  is 
the  social  side;  it  is  so  good  to  get  together 
and  become  better  acquainted  and  away  from 
the  grind  and  monotony  of  "all  work  and 
no  play." 


CORN  DAY  IN  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH 


Our  country  church,  which  is  about  three 
miles  from  here,  has  such  a  good  pastor.  He 
believes  in  making  the  church  really  serve 
the  people.  He  had  all  the  people  of  the  con- 
gregation and  their  families  come  together 
one  evening  at  his  home  for  a  party.    There 


62  THE    CORN    LADY 

a  Farmers'  Progressive  Club  was  suggested, 
and  a  committee  appointed  to  make  out  the 
constitution.  At  a  meeting  held  a  week  later, 
the  Farmers'  Progressive  Club  was  organ- 
ized with  about  fifty  members.  They  de- 
cided, as  one  feature  of  their  Club,  to  ob- 
serve Corn  Sunday  and  Monday  at  the 
church.  On  Saturday  the  people  brought 
corn  and  other  farm  products  to  the  church 
and  arranged  them  beautifully.  On  Sun- 
day, the  sermon  was  on  the  text:  "Whatso- 
ever a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap." 
It  was  a  "corn"  sermon  and  you  would  have 
been  surprised  and  delighted,  I  know,  if  you 
could  have  heard  it  and  all  the  ways  the 
preacher  found  to  bring  into  his  sermon, 
practical,  homely  farm  illustrations. 

On  Monday  afternoon  your  daughter, 
who  now  has  her  state  corn  judge's  cer- 
tificate, went  over  after  school  and  judged 
the  corn  for  them.  I  disliked  to  do  it,»for 
I  felt  as  though  I  didn't  know  enough  about 
corn  from  a  practical  standpoint,  but  I  just 
thought  I  couldn't  very  well  refuse  when 
they  asked  my  help.  That  evening  we  had 
a  big  meeting  and  talks  by  the  men  and 
boys  who  had  the  best  corn.  They  sang  their 
Club  Song  and  were  given  a  talk  by  the 


THE    CORN    LADY  63 

president  of  the  Club.  The  next  day  they 
came  and  loaded  up  the  farm  products  that 
were  displayed  and  gave  them  to  the 
preacher.  Now,  they  are  so  interested  that 
they  are  planning  to  have  an  expert  come 
from  the  State  College  of  Agriculture  and 
hold  another  exhibit  later  on. 

The  boys  have  built  a  work-bench  in  the 
basement  and  brought  some  tools  from  home, 
and  we  are  having  some  manual  training. 
We  are  working  out  a  few  useful  farm  de- 
vices, such  as  gates,  milking  stools,  racks,  in- 
dividual hog  nouses  and  so  forth.  We  have 
found  work  in  rope-splicing  and  making 
halters  even  more  useful  and  interesting  for 
the  children  than  basketry  and  mat-weav- 
ing, and  it  has  the  same  value  in  training 
their  hands.  I  will  send  you  some  pictures 
of  our  rope  work.  The  boys  and  girls  have 
also  learned  how  to  make  rope  halters  for 
calves  and  colts. 

It  has  been  very  cold  and  snowy,  so  we 
have  used  some  of  our  noon  hour  for  hand 
work.  The  girls  have  finished  the  sash  cur- 
tains for  the  windows.  They  hem-stitched 
them  and  each  girl  pinned  her  name  on  her 
own  curtains.  We  have  our  new  wall  paper 
and  some  new  books  for  our  library.     We 


64  THE    CORN    LADY 

scrubbed  the  schoolhouse  several  times,  and 
every  Friday  night  I  try  to  give  it  an  extra 
good  cleaning.  So  we  are  just  as  homelike 
and  cozy  as  can  be  in  our  school  room  dur- 
ing these  cold  winter  days.  They  are  almost 
over  now,  though,  and  I  am  almost  sorry, 
for  what  if  the  big  boys  should  have  to  drop 
out  of  school  soon  to  help  with  the  spring 
work? 

I  was  so  glad  to  know  from  your  last 
letter  that  you  and  mother  liked  the  way  I 
was  working.  I  do  want  so  much  to  really 
do  something  for  these  country  children. 
Sometimes  it  seems  to  me  as  though  I  had 
done  very  little  when  I  think  how  much  there 
is  that  should  be  done. 

Lovingly  your 

Country  Teacher. 


THE    CORN    LADY  « 


Wheat  on,  Iowa,  April  3, 1911 

Daddy  Dear: — The  men  are  busy  in  the 
fields  now,  but  the  boys  have  all  stayed  in 
school.  I  cannot  tell  you  how  glad  I  am. 
Edward's  father  said  to  me: 

"Well,  I  just  couldn't  think  of  taking  Ed- 
ward out  of  school  this  year,  until  it  was  out, 
for  he  is  so  interested  and  learning  so  much. 
And  he  is  learning  things  he  can  use,  too." 

Everyone  of  my  pupils  has  enrolled  in 
the  State  Junior  Boys'  and  Girls'  Club,  or- 
ganized and  planned  for  by  our  Extension 
Department.  The  girls  will  take  the  work 
in  cooking,  sewing  and  home  management, 
so  they  will  be  busy  on  this  work  all  sum- 
mer, whenever  they  have  time.  The  boys 
will  be  learning  to  "put  their  head  into  the 
game  of  farming"  by  taking  the  courses  in 
the  acre  yield  contests  and  the  individual  ear- 
test.  The  boy  in  the  state  who  has  the  larg- 
est number  of  bushels  of  corn  on  his  acre, 
with  the  least  expense,  is  to  have  a  trip  to 
Washington,  D.  C.,  next  fall,  and  his  mother 
may  go,  too.     How  we  all  wish  that  this 


66  THE   CORN    LADY 

might  be  one  of  our  boys  and  his  mother! 
The  boys  have  been  reading  the  accounts  of 
what  the  boys  of  the  South  have  done  in 
raising  corn.  There  was  one  boy  in  South 
Carolina  who  raised  two  hundred  and  twen- 
ty-eight and  three-fourths  bushels  of  corn 
on  one  acre.    How  is  that  for  a  record? 

We  have  been  doing  some  special  lan- 
guage work  that  I  am  proud  of.  Each  pupil 
selected  some  farm  or  home  subject  that  in- 
terested him,  and  wrote  an  illustrated  com- 
position on  it.  Those  who  could,  drew  their 
illustrations;  others  cut  them  from  farm 
journals  and  bulletins.  Some  clinched  their 
points  with  clippings  from  magazines  and 
papers.  We  expect  to  send  these  booklets 
to  the  county  fair. 

We  have  cleaned  and  raked  our  yard  and 
are  getting  the  ground  back  from  the  road 
and  the  playground,  ready  for  our  school 
garden.  We  are  putting  out  a  number  of 
vines  and  some  seed  that  our  Congressman 
was  kind  enough  to  send  us.  We  think  our 
radishes  and  lettuce  will  be  ready  to  eat  with 
our  lunches  before  school  is  out.  We  are 
going  to  start  a  little  experimental  plot  for 
alfalfa,  too. 

The  girls  in  the  Home  Club  served  lunch 


THE    CORN    LADY  67 

to  us  the  other  day.  We  brought  from  home 
the  different  things  needed ;  put  our  primary 
table  in  front  and  set  it  carefully.  Each  fam- 
ily had  been  told  what  to  bring  that  day  and 


HIS    OWN    TULIP 


the  girls  made  chocolate  on  the  stove,  too; 
then  they  served  the  dinner  We  had  studied 
at  our  meeting  just  before  this,  how  to  serve, 
and  they  were  carrying  their  teaching  into 
practice.  After  it  was  over,  Sam  came  up 
and  said: 


68  THE    CORN    LADY 

"Wish  you'd  let  us  do  that  sometime  and 
serve  the  girls." 

I  only  wish  you,  mother  and  the  rest  might 
have  been  here,  for  you  surely  would  have  en- 
joyed the  spread  that  my  girls  gave. 

We  have  been  testing  seed  corn  the  past 
week.  Each  pupil  already  had  the  ears  of 
corn  at  school  that  they  had  picked  on  Seed 
Corn  Picking  Day.  We  had  hung  these  up 
and  kept  them.  Then  each  of  the  pupils 
brought  two  more  ears.  So  altogether  we 
had  quite  a  lot  of  corn  to  test.  One  of  the 
boys  brought  a  box  and  two  of  them  went 
about  a  mile  through  the  snow  to  get  some 
fresh  saw-dust.  We  wet  the  saw-dust  thor- 
oughly, then  covered  it  with  a  strong  muslin 
cloth  on  which  we  had  marked  out  and  num- 
bered squares  for  each  ear.  The  boys  num- 
bered the  ears  and  arranged  them  in  rows  of 
ten  each  on  the  floor.  Then  each  pupil  put 
in  six  grains  from  each  of  his  ears  of  corn. 
These  six  grains  were  taken  from  different 
parts  of  the  ear.  We  took  another  cloth  and 
placed  it  over  the  corn  and  on  this  we  put 
some  more  saw-dust.  In  about  five  days  the 
corn  had  sprouted.  Almost  every  ear  that 
had  been  picked  early  sprouted  perfectly, 
every  grain  growing,  but  some  of  the  other 


THE    CORN    LADY  69 

ears  did  not  grow  at  all,  and  some  were  weak. 
The  boys  say  they  will  never  plant  any  corn 
that  does   not   test  one   hundred   per   cent 


TESTING     CORN 


strong,  for  it  doesn't  take  any  more  work  to 
tend  a  perfect  stand  of  corn  than  a  poor  one 
and  there  are  much  greater  results  from  it. 

Lovingly, 

Helen. 


70  THE    CORN    LADY 


Wheaton,  Iowa,  May  5,  1911 

Dear  Daddy  Mine: — Our  tulips  have 
blossomed  and  they  are  just  glorious.  Every- 
one who  passes,  stops  to  look  at  their  gold 
and  crimson  beauty.  But  the  children  love 
them  best  of  all.  The  first  morning  that 
they  blossomed  we  were  all  out  around  the 
bed  before  time  for  school.  Each  one 
claimed  his  or  her  own  blossoms  and  really 
thought  they  were  the  prettiest  ones  in  the 
bed. 

And  Charles — my  rough,  motherless  boy 
— who  used  to  swear  so  at  the  beginning  of 
the  year,  loves  them  so.  He  is  the  boy  who, 
when  I  talked  with  him  about  swearing  said : 
"Teacher,  I  don't  want  to  swear.  I'd  want 
you  to  lick  me  for  it,  if  I  thought  it  would 
do  any  good;  but  it  wouldn't.  When  I  git 
to  playing  ball  and  something  goes  wrong, 
I  just  forget."  Charles  was  down  on  his 
knees  that  morning  by  the  bed,  touching  two 
great  red  blossoms  with  boyish  eagerness 
and  saying,  "Aw,  you  don't  need  to  think 
yours  are  the  prettiest.     Mine's  the  most 


THE    CORN    LADY 


71 


reddest  of  all."    And  there  was  no  one  who 
could  gainsay  him. 

He  had  thrown  his  torn  straw  hat  down 
beside  him,  and  I  shall  never  forget  how  he 
looked  with  the  morning  sun  catching  the 


THE    GIRLS      TULIPS 


bright  lights  in  his  tousled  hair,  his  fair  boy- 
ish face — strong  and  fearless,  his  caressing 
touch  on  the  crimson  flowers  and,  finally,  the 
look  of  reverence  which  stole  into  his  eyes, 
which  told  of  a  new-born  love  for  the  beau- 


72  THE    CORN    LADY 

tiful  that  had  found  room  in  his  heart.  No, 
of  course,  he  has  not  sworn  since.  There's 
no  room  for  roughness  and  oaths  in  the  heart 
of  a  boy  who  has  learned  the  lesson  he  did 
that  morning. 

A  rabbit  came  one  night  and  ate  off  some 
of  the  tulips.  Such  mourning  as  there  was 
in  camp  the  next  morning.  I  am  glad  they 
enjoy  the  flowers  so  much.  We  must  have 
even  more  next  year.  And  I  hope  we  can 
have  some  hyacinths  and  crocuses,  too. 

The  eighth  grade  class  all  did  creditable 
work  in  the  examinations.  My  mountaineer 
was  about  ready  to  give  up  on  grammar. 
He  found  it  so  hard  and  did  not  think  he 
could  get  it.  But  I  said,  "Do  you  mean 
to  tell  me,  Max,  that  a  boy  who  knows  as 
much  about  corn  as  you  do,  will  let  gram- 
mar get  the  best  of  him?"  Then  he  buckled 
down.  We  had  the  strongest  class  in  the 
county,  the  superintendent  said.  They  were 
alive  and  interested,  and  had  done  their  best. 
I  knew  that. 

We  made  a  collection  of  different  kinds 
of  weed  seeds  last  Fall  and  this  Spring, 
when  the  farmers  were  buying  their  seed, 
we  examined  samples  of  it  to  see  if  we  could 
identify  any  weed  seeds  in  it.     We  found 


THE    CORN    LADY 


73 


one  sample  of  red  clover-seed  that  had 
enough  Canadian  thistle  in  it  to  ruin  the 
man's  field.  He  had  bought  the  seed  of  a 
seedsman  in  whom  he  had  confidence  and 


THE    MAY    BASKET 


had  not  examined  it.     I  am  very  glad  that 
it  wasn't  sowed. 

I  wish  you  might  have  a  look  at  my  beau- 
tiful May  Basket.  It  was  such  a  surprise. 
The  girls  made  it  of  raffia  and  filled  it  with 
violets — hundreds  and  hundreds  of  them — a 
solid  mass  of  purple  and  some  green  violet 


74 


THE    CORN    LADY 


leaves  around  the  edge.     It  is  surely  the 
prettiest  May  Basket  I  have  ever  seen. 

Spring  is  here.  Everything  is  waking  up 
and  it  makes  me  so  happy  to  be  in  the  coun- 
try where  I  can  enjoy  it. 

Lovingly  your 

Country  Teacher. 


liiHililllll  II 


father's  wheat  field 


THE    CORN    LADY 


Wheaton,  Iowa,  June  3, 1911 

My  Dear  Daddy: — My  heart  is  so  full 
that  I  can  only  tell  you  to-night  of  our  last 
day.  We  had  been  busy  in  school  right  up 
to  the  last  and  thought  we  would  not  plan 
for  a  big  program,  but  that  we  would  just 
have  a  quiet  little  picnic  by  ourselves.  We 
haven't  talked  much  about  it,  either,  for  we 
have  all  been  sort  of  dreading  this  last  day. 

I  told  the  boys  and  girls  that  we  would  go 
down  to  the  woods  the  day  before  the  last 
day  and  eat  our  dinner  together,  and  tell 
stories  and  have  a  good  time.  James  asked 
me  what  woods  and  I  said:  "Well,  I  sup- 
pose the  Xorth  woods  will  be  the  best."  That 
was  all,  but  the  next  forenoon  I  surely 
thought  there  was  something  the  children 
knew  and  were  not  telling  me.  Noon  came, 
however,  and  nothing  happened,  so  we  took 
our  dinner  pails  and  started  to  walk  to  the 
Xorth  woods,  but  before  we  had  reached 
there  I  began  to  see  buggies  among  the  trees 
and  table-cloths  spread  on  the  ground,  and 
I  knew  all  the  people  who  were  there — the 


76  THE    CORN    LADY 

people  of  our  district — Daddy,  every  one 
of  them.  They  had  come  to  surprise  me  and 
tell  me  good-by. 

Such  a  dinner  as  we  had — fried  chicken, 
cake  and  ice  cream  and  when  we  were  just 
finishing,  a  splendid  woman — one  of  my 
nicest  and  most  helpful  mothers — arose  and 
made  the  kindest  speech.  She  said  they  ap- 
preciated all  I  had  done  for  the  children; 
how  interested  I  had  been  in  them  in  every 
way;  that  I  had  not  only  helped  them  but 
that  I  had  made  the  whole  neighborhood  a 
pleasanter  and  a  better  place  to  live  in.  She 
said  that  all  my  friends  wanted  to  give  some 
expression  to  their  gratitude,  which  I  could 
take  with  me  and  have  all  my  life.  Then 
she  presented  me  with  a  gold  watch  and 
chain  from  all  the  people  and  children  of  the 
district.  It  was  all  unexpected,  for  they 
hadn't  even  spoken  of  it  over  the  telephone 
for  fear  I  would  hear  them.  Something 
caught  hold  of  my  throat  and  I  thought  I 
just  couldn't  say  anything,  but  I  did  manage 
to  say  a  few  words.  What  they  were,  I 
could  not  tell  you  now.  But  all  had  tears  in 
our  eyes  until  Mr.  McCormick,  with  his 
jolly  good  nature,  began  to  joke  and  tease 
me  and  then  we  felt  a  little  more  natural. 


THE   CORN    LADY  77 

Of  course,  I  am  coming  back  next  Fall 
at  better  wages  and  will  have  some  new 
equipment  to  work  with  in  the  school.  I 
think  we  could  have  a  new  schoolhouse  but, 
we  have  talked  a  good  deal  about  consolida- 
tion and  are  waiting  to  see  if  that  is  decided 
on  before  we  invest  in  a  new  schoolhouse. 

They  are  just  the  best  people  in  the  world, 
I  know.  And  the  boys  and  girls — well,  I 
can't  write  about  them  to-night  for  already 
I  am  missing  them  so.  It  has  been  a  won- 
derful year.  It  has  helped  and  developed  me 
in  many  ways  and  I  have  been  so  glad  to 
have  had  the  opportunity  to  try  to  re-direct 
a  country  school  so  that  it  would  fit  country 
life.  There  is  such  an  awakening  along  this 
line  throughout  the  United  States  that  all 
of  us  who  are  trying  know  that  we  are 
doing  our  part  in  a  great  national  move- 
ment. And  I  have  had  the  part  I  like  best, 
because  it  is  nearest  to  the  real  work.  I 
would  rather  work  it  out  in  this  one  district 
school,  than  to  be  on  the  president's  Farm 
Life  Commission.  It  is  easy  to  see  that 
something  must  be  done,  and  to  give  advice, 
but  to  really  meet  actual  conditions  and 
work  them  out,  that  is  a  task  well  worth  any- 
one's time  and  strength  and  mind.    We  have 


78  THE    CORN    LADY 

found  that  we  could  do  some  things  this 
year  and  next  year  we  hope  to  do  much  more. 

And  I,  for  one,  would  rather  be  a  coun- 
try teacher  than  do  anything  else.  Of 
course,  Tom  thinks  when  he  is  through  with 
that  post-graduate  course  in  agronomy  and 
animal  husbandry  and  gets  on  to  his  farm, 
that  some  day  he  can  persuade  me  that  there 
is  one  thing  better  than  being  a  country 
teacher,  even.  Do  you  suppose  he  can, 
Daddy? 

I'll  be  home  soon  and  how  glad  I  am.  It 
is  hard  to  leave  here,  but  the  weeks  at  home 
and  the  summer  work  at  Normal  School  will 
be  just  what  I  require. 

Until  I  see  you, 

Lovingly  your 

Helen. 


THE  CORN  LADY 


SUPPLEMENT 
FARM    ARITHMETIC    PROBLEMS 


Reckoning  Farm  Crops 

The  ordinary  rule  for  figuring  ear  corn  in  the 
crib  is  to  count  two  bushels  to  each  five  cubic  feet. 
Multiply  together  the  length,  width,  and  depth  of  the 
crib  in  feet  and  take  two-fifths  of  it,  which  will  give 
you  the  number  of  bushels. 

1.  A  crib  of  corn  is  10  feet  wide,  32  feet  long, 
and  has  an  average  of  10  feet  of  corn  in  it.  How 
many  bushels? 

2.  A  crib  of  corn  10  feet  wide  is  made  up  of 
three  16-foot  sections.  Two  of  these  sections  are  full 
to  the  top,  10  feet  high  throughout.  The  third  16- 
foot  section  is  8  feet  high  with  corn  at  one  end  slop- 
ing off  to  4  feet*  at  the  other  end.  How  much  corn 
in  each  of  the  full  sections,  and  how  much  in  this 
last  one  partly  full?  How  much  corn  in  crib  alto- 
gether ? 


*Take   average   height    (8    feet   plus   4   feet   divided   by 
2,  equals  6  feet). 

79 


80  THE  CORN  LADY 

3.  Measure  a  crib  of  corn  at  home  and  figure  out 
the  number  of  bushels  it  contains. 

4.  A  round  slat  pen  of  corn  is  20  feet  across  and 
2  sections,  or  8  feet,  high.  How  much  corn  does  it 
contain  ? 

o.  A  rick  of  ear  corn  piled  out  doors  is  10  feet 
wide  at  the  bottom,  tapering  to  a  point  in  the  middle 
H  feet  high.  It  is  50  feet  long.  How  many  bushels 
in  it? 

6.  A  round  pile  of  corn  on  the  ground  is  20  feet 
across,  tapering  to  a  point  10  feet  high  in  the  middle. 
How  many  bushels  does  it  contain? 

In  estimating  bushels  of  shelled  corn  or  small  grain 
in  the  bin,  take  four-fifths  of  the  number  of  cubic 
feet. 

7.  How  many  bushels  of  oats  in  a  bin  10  feet 
wide,  40  feet  long  and  8  feet  deep? 

8.  .How  many  bushels  of  shelled  corn  in  a  wagon 
bed  3  feet  wide,  10  feet  long,  and  27  inches  deep? 

9.  The  common  practice  in  estimating  ear  corn 
from  the  field  is  to  count  one  bushel  for  every  inch 
in  depth  of  an  ordinary  wagon  bed  3  feet  wide  and 
10  feet  long.  How  does  this  agree  with  the  rule  pro- 
viding for  2  bushels  for  5  feet? 

As  potatoes  and  apples  are  always  sold  by  heaped 
measure,  the  rule  for  estimating  them  is  3  bushels  to 
each  4  cubic  feet,  or  a  slightly  larger  bushel  than 
small  grain  or  shelled  corn,  which  is  always  sold  by 
level  measure. 


FAEM  ARITHMETIC  PROBLEMS  81 

10.  An  ordinary  freight  car  is  8  feet  wide  by  32 
feet  long,  and  is  generally  filled  about  4  feet  deep. 
How  many  bushels  of  apples  would  this  be? 

An  acre  of  land  is  160  square  rods.  To  find  the 
number  of  acres  in  any  field,  multiply  together  the 
length  and  the  width  in  rods  and  divide  by  100. 

11.  An  80-acre  field  has  a  strip  2  rods  wide  and 
160  rods  long  taken  off  for  road.  Besides,  there  is  a 
pasture  10  rods  wide  by  25  rods  long,  and  the  house, 
orchard  and  feed  lots  take  a  strip  20  rods  wide  by  30 
rods  long.  If  all  the  rest  of  the  80  acres  is  planted 
in  corn,  how  many  acres  of  corn  will  there  be? 

12.  If  the  corn  in  this  field  fills  3  16-foot  sections 
of  crib  10  feet  deep  and  12  feet  wide,  how  many 
bushels  of  corn  is  that  per  acre? 

13.  How  many  acres  in  a  piece  of  land  12  rods 
wide  and  80  rods  long? 

14.  If  this  land  is  sold  at  $100  per  acre,  what 
will  it  bring? 

15.  If  a  mistake  of  3  feet  is  made  in  measuring 
the  width  of  the  piece,  how  much  difference  would  it 
make  in  the  price  received  for  the  land? 

16.  A  piece  of  land  80  rods  long  is  50  rods  Wide 
at  one  end  and  30  rods  wide  at  the  other  end.  How 
many  acres  does  it  contain? 

17.  If  this  land  is  planted  in  oats  and  the  crop 
fills  a  bin  10  feet  wide,  12  feet  long  and  12  feet  deep, 
what  is  the  yield  per  acre? 

18.  When  corn  is  planted  in  rows  3  feet  8  inches 


S*  THE  CORN  LADY 

apart,  the  custom  is  to  count  9  rows  to  an  acre  in  a 
field  a  quarter  of  a  mile  long.  Is  this  rule  correct? 
19.  In  husking  corn  in  a  field  where  the  rows  are 
80  rods  long,  4  rows  make  a  30-bushel  load.  What 
is  the  yield  per  acre? 

Threshing  and  Harvesting  Problems 

1.  If  a  field  of  oats  is  half  a  mile  long  and  40 
rods  wide,  how  much  should  be  paid  for  cutting  it  at 
75  cents  per  acre? 

2.  If  the  man  who  cuts  it  gets  it  done  in  4  days, 
how  much  is  he  making  per  day  ? 

3.  Find  the  amount  of  this  threshing  bill: 
1,200  bushels  of  oats  at  2  cents  per  bushel. 

860  bushels  of  wheat  at  4  cents  per  bushel. 
2,600  pounds  of  coal  at  $4  per  ton. 
4  men  and  teams  at  $3  per  day,  for  a  day  and  a  half. 
6  men  at  $1.75  per  day,  for  a  day  and  a  half. 

4.  The  field  in  which  this  1,200  bushels  of  oats 
were  grown  is  120  rods  long  and  50  rods  wide.  What 
was  the  yield  per  acre? 

5.  The  wheat  field  was  86  rods  long  and  80  rods 
wide.    What  was  the  yield  per  acre? 

6.  Counting  the  cost  of  cutting  at  75  cents  per 
acre,  and  the  shocking  at  25  cents  per  acre,  what  has 
been  the  total  cost  of  harvesting  and  threshing? 
What  does  this  amount  to  in  expense  per  bushel  ? 

7.  If  a  self-binder  receives  proper  care,  it  will  last 
12  years.    It  is  run  each  year  on  an  average  of  5  days 


FARM  ARITHMETIC  PROBLEMS  83 

of  10  hours  each,  (a)  If  the  binder  cost  $120  and 
simple  interest  on  the  investment  is  allowed  at  6  per 
cent,  what  is  the  cost  of  one  hour's  work  of  the 
binder?  (b)  If  by  carelessness  in  handling  and  the 
leaving  out  of  doors  when  not  in  use,  the  life  of  the 
binder  is  reduced  from  12  years  to  4  years  (4  years  is 
the  average  life  of  the  binder),  what  is  the  cost  per 
hour  of  its  use  ? 

8.  A  crib  of  corn  is  weighed  in,  in  Xovember,  as 
67,200  pounds.    How  many  bushels  would  this  be  ? 

9.  How  many  feet  deep  would  it  fill  a  crib  10  feet 
wide  and  32  feet  long? 

10.  Allowing  that  the  shrinkage  on  ear  corn  is  3 
per  cent  a  month  of  the  original  amount  for  six 
months  from  Xovember  on,  what  would  this  crib  of 
corn  weigh  out  next  June? 

11.  If  the  corn  can  be  sold  at  gathering  time  for 
50  cents  a  bushel,  would  it  pay  better  to  sell  it  then 
or  hold  it  till  next  June  and  sell  it  for  60  cents, 
allowing  3  per  cent  shrink  a  month  for  6  months  ? 

12.  A  quarter-section  farm  is  divided  up  as  fol- 
lows: Corn  land,  80  acres;  oats,  20  acres;  hay  land, 
30  acres;  pasture,  20  acres;  orchard,  5  acres;  waste 
land,  lots,  buildings,  etc.,  5  acres.  Draw  a  sketch  of 
this  farm  as  you  would  lay  it  out. 

13.  The  corn  grown  filled  4  16-foot  sections  of 
crib  12  feet  wide  and  10  feet  deep.  The  oats  filled  a 
bin  10  feet  wide,  12  feet  long,  and  11  feet  deep.  The 
hay  filled  a  mow  30  feet  wide,  100  feet  long,  and  15 


84  THE  CORN  LADY 

feet  high.  The  apples  filled  a  bin  10  feet  wide,  12 
feet  long  and  7  feet  deep.  Figuring  the  crops  at  the 
present  local  prices  and  allowing  a  fair  rent  for  the 
pasture  land,  what  was  the  income  from  the  farm  for 
the  season? 

14.  If  corn  is  checked  3  feet  8  inches  apart  each 
way,  how  many  rows  to  the  acre? 

15.  With  3  stalks  to  the  hill,  how  many  stalks  to 
the  acre  ? 

16.  If  it  takes  100  ears  to  make  a  bushel,  how 
many  bushels  to  the  acre  would  you  have,  with  one 
good  ear  from  each  stalk? 

17.  Which  is  the  best  crop,  5  stalks  to  the  hill 
with  small  ears  requiring  200  to  make  a  bushel,  or  3 
stalks  to  the  hill  bearing  good  ears  requiring  100  to 
make  a  bushel? 

18.  If  a  field  of  corn  is  good  enough  to  make  70 
bushels  per  acre,  but  the  squirrels  take  out  100  hills 
to  the  acre,  in  a  10-acre  piece,  how  many  bushels  will 
be  lost  from  the  crop? 

Cost  of  Growing  Farm  Crops 

In  estimating  the  cost  of  growing  crops  in  the 
following  problems,  count  the  time  of  a  man  and  a 
team  at  $3  per  day,  or  man  alone  at  $1.50  per  day. 

1.  A  field  is  80  rods  long  and  60  rods  wide.  How 
many  acres  ? 

2.  How  many  days  will  it  take  to  plow  it,  allow- 


FARM  ARITHMETIC  PROBLEMS  85 

ing  2y2  acres  a  day  as  fair  work  for  man  and  team  ? 
What  would  be  the  cost? 

3.  If  a  man  and  team  can  harrow  15  acres  a  day, 
how  long  will  it  take  to  harrow  it  twice  ?  What  will 
be  the  cost? 

4.  If  a  man  and  team  can  plant  15  acres  a  day, 
how  long  will  it  take  and  what  will  it  cost? 

5.  If  a  man  and  team  can  cultivate  7x/2  acres  a 
day,  how  many  days  will  it  take  to  cultivate  it  4 
times,  and  what  will  it  cost? 

6.  If  this  field  of  corn  makes  2,000  bushels,  what 
is  the  yield  per  acre?  What  will  it  cost  per  acre  to 
husk  it  at  3  cents  per  bushel  ? 

7.  What  is  the  total  cost  of  the  field  of  corn  in  the 
way  of  labor?  How  much  per  acre?  Allowing  rent 
at  $5  per  acre,  what  is  the  total  cost  per  acre  ? 

8.  What  would  this  field  of  corn  bring  at  present 
prices?    How  much  per  acre? 

9.  What  would  be  the  net  return  per  acre  after 
deducting  all  cost  in  the  way  of  labor  and  rent? 
Have  any  items  of  expense  been  omitted?  If  so, 
figure  them  in. 

10.  What  would  be  the  cost  per  acre  of  growing 
wheat,  allowing  for  plowing  at  3  acres  per  day,  2 
ha r rowings  at  15  acres  per  day,  seeding  at  15  acres 
per  day,  6  pecks  of  seed  at  $1.00  per  bushel,  cutting 
at  75  cents  per  acre,  shocking  at  4  acres  a  day  to  each 
man,  and  a  threshing  expense  of  7  cents  per  bushel 
on  a  yield  of  24  bushels  per  acre. 


86  THE  COKN  LADY 

11.  What  would  be  the  net  return  on  30  acres  on 
a  crop  of  24  bushels  of  wheat  per  acre,  after  paying 
all  the  above  expenses  and  selling  the  wheat  at  90 
cents  per  bushel  and  paying  $5  per  acre  relit? 

Comparison    of    Different    Crops  —  Rotation    of 
Crops 

1.  Suppose  a  40-acre  field  planted  to  corn  for  5 
years  in  succession  produces  60  bushels  per  acre  the 
first  year,  55  the  second,  43  the  third,  33  the  fourth, 
and  30  the  fifth,  what  will  be  the  value  of  the  corn 
grown  in  the  5  years,  at  40  cents  per  bushel? 

2.  Suppose  instead  of  growing  corn  continuously 
he  had  practiced  the  following  rotation : 

First  year — 40  acres  corn,  60  bushels  per  acre,  at 
40  cents.  Second  year — 40  acres  oats,  60  bushels  per 
acre,  at  30  cents.  Third  year — 40  acres  clover,  3  tons 
per  acre,  at  $8  per  ton.  Fourth  year — 40  acres  tim- 
othy, 2  tons  per  acre,  at  $9  per  ton.  Fifth  year — 40 
acres  corn,  70  bushels  per  acre,  at  40  cents  per  bushel. 

What  would  have  been  the  value  of  the  five  years' 
crop? 

3.  Which  of  the  two  plans  would  produce  the  most 
money  in  the  five  years  ?  How  much  more  ?  Which 
would  leave  the  land  in  the  best  condition  at  the  end 
of  five  years?  Are  there  any  other  advantages  to 
either  plan  ? 

4.  The  average  good  stand  of  corn  is  about  12,000 


FARM  ARITHMETIC  PROBLEMS  87 

stalks  per  acre.  If  by  careful  selection  of  seed  corn 
each  stalk  can  be  made  to  bear  an  average  of  one 
ounce  more  of  corn,  what  will  be  the  increase  in 
yield  per  acre?  What  will  be  the  increase  in  cash 
return  on  70  acres,  if  the  corn  is  40  cents  per  bushel  ? 

5.  Eight  pounds  of  seed  corn  will  plant  an  acre. 
How  many  bushels  would  it  take  to  plant  70  acres? 

6.  If  a  man  put  in  a  day  on  the  selection  of  each 
bushel  of  corn,  what  would  be  the  cost  of  selecting 
seed  for  70  acres,  counting  his  time  at  $2  per  day? 
How  much  per  acre? 

7.  If  by  such  selection  he  can  increase  the  yield  of 
his  corn  5  bushels  per  acre,  and  corn  is  worth  40  cents 
per  bushel,  what  will  be  the  increase  in  value  on  70 
acres  of  corn  ?    How  much  per  acre  ? 


Dairy  Problems 

[n  working  out  these  problems,  have  the  pupils  get 
prices  on  feed  by  inquiring  of  the  local  dealers.  It 
might  be  well,  too,  to  keep  the  market  quotations  on 
feed  and  farm  crops  posted  on  the  blackboard  and 
changed  weekly.  If  possible  demonstrate  the  use  of 
the  Babcock  milk  tester.  Have  pupils  actually  test 
milk.  A  Babcock  tester  can  be  secured  complete  for 
.$5.00. 

1.  A  good  ration  for  a  dairy  cow  is  10  bushels  of 
corn  and  10  bushels  of  oats  ground  together,  and  one 


88  THE  COEN  LADY 

ton  of  clover  hay.  This  amount  should  feed  a  cow  for 
75  days.  At  present  prices,  what  will  be  the  cost  of 
supplying  this  ration  for  225  days  and  pasturing  the 
cow  the  balance  of  the  year  at  $1.50  per  month? 

2.  Allowing  that  the  labor  cost  is  50  cents  per 
week  per  cow,  what  is  the  total  cost  of  the  cow's  keep 
for  a  year  ?    What  is  the  cost  per  month  ?    Per  week  ? 

3.  If  butter  fat  is  worth  25  cents  per  pound,  how 
many  pounds  must  each  cow  produce  per  year  to 
balance  the  expense  of  her  keep?  How  much  per 
month  ?    Per  week  ? 

4.  A  cow  gives  3%  gallons  of  milk  per  day 
(weight  8%  pounds  per  gallon).  If  the  milk  tests 
4.8  per  cent,  how  much  butter  fat  does  she  yield  per 
week?    Per  month? 

5.  If  the  milk  tests  2.8  butter  fat,  what  is  the 
yield  per  week  ?    Per  month  ? 

6.  Of  two  cows,  one  gives  3  gallons  of  milk  per 
day,  testing  2.8  per  cent  butter  fat,  the  other  gives  2 
gallons  per  day,  testing  4.8  per  cent  butter  fat.  Which 
cow  is  the  most  profitable?  How  much  more  per 
month  ? 

7.  Allowing  that  the  labor  cost  is  about  the  same 
under  each  method,  which  would  pay  best,  to  sell  milk 
at  5  cents  per  quart  or  butter  fat  at  25  cents  per 
pound,  if  the  milk  tests  4  per  cent  ? 

8.  If  you  allow  that  after  taking  out  the  butter 
fat  the  sweet  skrm  milk  is  worth  5  cents  a  gallon  to 
feed  to  pigs,  which  plan  will  pay  best? 


FARM  ARITHMETIC  PROBLEMS 


89 


Mai- 

June 

July 

Aug. 

Sept. 

Oct. 

Nov. 

Dec. 

Jan. 

lbs. 
milk 

lbs. 

milk 

lbs. 
milk 

lbs. 
milk 

lbs. 
milk 

lbs. 
milk 

lbs. 
milk 

lbs. 
milk 

lbs. 
milk 

750 

754 

730 

670 

600 

680 

650 

640 

520 

tests 

test  % 

tests 

test  S 

tests 

tests 

test  S 

tests 

test  S 

4.4 

4.4 

4.2 

4 

4.2 

4.2 

4 

3.8 

3.6 

lbs. 
milk 

lbs. 
milk 

lbs. 
milk 

lbs. 
milk 

lbs. 
milk 

lbs. 
milk 

lbs. 
milk 

lbs. 
milk 

lbs. 
milk 

780 

775 

750 

700 

670 

670 

650 

630 

600 

testS 

tests 

tests 

tests 

tests 

tests 

tests 

tests 

tests 

3.2 

3.2 

3 

3 

3 

3.2 

3 

2.8 

2.8 

Feb. 

lbs. 
milk 

450 

tests 

3.6 

lbs. 
milk 

500 

test 
2.8 


9.  Find  the  yield  of  milk  and  the  yield  of  butter 
fat  for  the  year  from  each  of  these  cows. 

10.  If  the  average  value  of  butter  fat  for  the  year 
is  24  cents  per  pound,  what  is  the  money  return  from 
each  cow? 

11.  If  the  cost  of  keeping  each  cow  for  the  year 
is  $32.50,  what  is  the  net  profit  from  each? 

12.  If  feed  is  high  and  the  cost  of  keeping  each 
cow  is  $43.00  per  year,  what  is  the  net  profit  from 
each? 

13.  Figuring  the  ration  given  in  problem  No.  1 
at  present  prices  for  feed,  225  days  on  dry  feed  and 
the  balance,  of  the  year  pasture  at  $1.50  per  month 
and  not  making  allowance  for  labor,  what  would  be 
the  profit  from  each  cow? 


90  THE  CORN  LADY 

Poultry 

1.  A  flock  of  100  hens  average  85  eggs  a  year 
each.  If  the  average  price  of  eggs  for  the  year  is  16 
cents  per  dozen,  what  is  the  value  of  these  eggs  ? 

2.  Suppose  it  takes  12  bushels  of  corn  at  45  cents, 
5  bushels  of  oats  at  25  cents,  and  $7  worth  of  other 
feed,  to  keep  this  flock  for  one  year,  what  is  the  profit 
over  and  above  the  cost  of  the  feed  ? 

3.  Some  flocks  of  hens  have  a  record  of  as  high  as 
200  eggs  each  in  a  year.  What  would  be  the  cash 
return  from  this  flock  of  100  hens  if  they  did  as  well  ? 
What  would  be  the  net  return  over  the  cost  of  feed  ? 

4.  At  present  local  prices,  what  would  be  the 
amount  received  for  34  hens  weighing  7^  pounds 
each?    How  much  would  this  be  for  each  hen? 

5.  At  present  local  prices,  what  would  be  received 
for  34  hens  weighing  4^  pounds  each,  if  the  dealer 
docked  them  1  cent  per  pound  from  the  regular  pricew 
because  they  were  small  and  thin? 

6.  Have  the  pupils  get  figures  on  actual  sales  of 
poultry  and  figure  the  returns.  Have  each  pupil  bring 
several  such  records,  if  possible. 

Birds,  Weeds  and  Insects,  and  Their  Relation  to 
Field  Crops 

1.  How  many  acres  in  a  section?  How  many  sec- 
tions in  a  township?  How  many  townships  in  your 
county?    How  many  acres  in  the  county? 


FARM  ARITHMETIC  PROBLEMS         91 

2.  The  damage  done  by  insects  in  Iowa  averages 
58  cents  per  acre.  What  would  this  amount  to  for 
your  county?     For  the  farm  you  live  on? 

3.  Wild  birds  average  about  450  to  the  quarter 
section.  How  many  would  this  be  for  the  county? 
For  your  farm  ? 

4.  Allowing  that  each  bird  eats  50  insects  per  day 
(a  low  estimate),  how  many  insects  would  the  birds 
of  the  county  destroy  in  the  five  summer  months? 
How  many  on  your  farm? 

5.  Estimating  100,000  insects  to  the  bushel,  how 
many  bushels  would  this  be  ?  How  many  bushels  per 
day? 

6.  The  birds  that  stay  all  winter  eat  principally 
weed  seed.  Allowing  one  bird  to  the  acre  and  *4 
ounce  of  weed  seed  per  day  for  each  bird,  how  many 
tons  of  weed  seed  would  the  birds  eat  in  three  months 
in  the  whole  county?  How  many  pounds  on  your 
farm? 

7.  One  plant  of  plantain  bears  about  14,000  seeds, 
weighing  about  one  ounce.  Forty  of  these  seeds  will 
easily  seed  a  square  yard  of  ground.  Suppose  all  the 
seeds  were  allowed  to  live,  how  many  square  yards 
of  ground  would  one  plant  seed?  What  harm  do 
plantain  and  such  weeds  do  ?  How  can  we  keep  them 
from  spreading  and  crowding  out  the  crops? 

8.  Five  hundred  small  grasshoppers  will  eat  a 
pound  of  growing  crops  in  a  day.  Almost  all  birds 
are  fond  of  grasshoppers  for  food.     A  cuckoo  or  a 


92 


THE  CORN  LADY 


meadow  lark  will  eat  250  a  day.  How  many  birds 
will  it  take  at  this  rate  to  save  a  ton  of  small  grain  or 
grass  in  ten  days? 

9.  As  destroyers  of  potato  beetles  and  other  harm- 
ful insects,  a  single  pair  of  quails  is  said  to  be  worth 
$5.  If  this  pair  produces  a  brood  of  16  young  quails, 
what  is  the  value  of  the  work  done  by  the  entire  covey 
next  year  ? 

Scale  Tickets 

1.  A  farmer  sold  6  loads  of  ear  corn  (70  pounds 
to  the  bushel)  at  51  cents  per  bushel.  Fill  out  the 
scale  ticket,  and  find  how  much  money  he  should  get 
for  each  load  and  how  much  for  the  total. 


Gross 

Weight 

Net 

Net 

Amount 

weight 

wagon 

weight 

weight 

at  51c. 

lbs. 

lbs. 

lbs. 

bushels 

$ 

3480 

1310 

3405 

1260 

3200 

1190 

3394 

1285 

8382 

1220 

3476 

1276 

Totals 


Note  that  this  kind  of  work  is  easily  proved.  The 
total  of  the  net  weights  of  the  different  loads  should 
equal  the  difference  between  the  total  of  the  gross 
weights  less  the  total  of  the  wagon  weights.    Also,  the 


FARM  ARITHMETIC  PROBLEMS  93 

total  of  the  values  of  the  different  loads  should  equal 
the  result  of  figuring  the  total  net  weight  at  the  given 
price. 

2.  Make  out  a  scale  ticket  and  find  the  amount 
received  for  five  loads  of  hogs  at  $5.25  per  100 
pounds.  Gross  weights:  2974,  3025,  2889,  2986,  3116. 
Wagon  weights:  1210,  1190,  1275,  1280,  1312. 

3.  Make  out  a  scale  ticket  and  find  the  amount 
received  for  five  loads  of  oats  sold  at  42  cents  per 
bushel.  Gross  weights:  2900,  2842,  2736,  2937,  2854. 
Wagon  weights:  1187,  1264,  1235,  1210,  1224. 

4.  Make  out  a  scale  ticket  and  find  the  amount 
received  for  four  loads  of  shelled  corn  sold  at  52  cents 
per  bushel.  Gross  weights:  3664,  3580,  3376,  3610. 
Wagon  weights:  1200,  1224,  1185,  1240. 

5.  Make  out  a  scale  ticket  and  find  the  amount 
received  for  ten  loads  of  potatoes  sold  at  60  cents  per 
bushel.  Gross  weights :  3168,  3040,  3276,  3100,  3000, 
2940,  2865,  2986,  3012,  2730.  Wagon  weights:  1262, 
1214, 1200,  1262,  1214,  1200,  1262,  1214,  1200,  1262. 

6.  Find  the  value  of  five  loads  of  hay  sold  at  $6.25 
per  ton.  Gross  weights:  3180,  3375,  3464,  3490, 
3388.    Wagon  weights:  1175,  1190,  1240,  1245,  1260. 

7.  The  milk  weights  for  a  week  run  as  follows,  by 
days :  475,  460,  450,  455,  470,  480,  485.  In  each  case 
the  weight  of  5  cans  at  15  pounds  each  should  be 
deducted  from  these  gross  weights.  If  the  milk  tests 
4  per  cent  butter  fat  and  the  price  of  butter  fat  is 
25  cents  per  pound,  what  will  be  the  check  for  the 


94  THE  CORN  LADY 

week  ?    What  will  be  the  return  if  the  test  is  3.3  per 
cent  ? 

8.  The  weights  of  cream  shipped  each  day  run  as 
follows :  64,  63,  67,  70,  72,  71,  70.  Deduct  15  pounds 
for  weight  of  can  and  figure  returns  on  a  price  of  25 
cents  for  butter  fat,  if  cream  tests  40  per  cent.  Figure 
net  returns  after  deducting  an  express  charge  of  40 
cents  per  100  pounds  on  the  gross  weight  shipped  and 
5  cents  each  for  the  return  of  the  empty  cans. 

9.  The  weights  of  ten  bags  of  clover  seed  run  as 
follows:  164,  163,  164,  160,  162,  159,  150,  155,  154, 
156.  Allowing  one  pound  each  for  the  weight  of  the 
bags,  how  much  clover  seed  is  there,  and  what  is  it 
worth  at  $7  per  bushel? 

10.  The  weights  of  eight  bags  of  timothy  seed  run 
as  follows:  107,  109,  105,  106,  101,  111,  107,  107. 
Allowing  one  pound  each  for  the  weight  of  the  sacks, 
how  much  timothy  seed  is  there,  and  what  is  it  worth 
at  $1.75  per  bushel? 

Painting  and  Papering 

In  painting,  allow  one  gallon  of  paint  for  every  250 
square  feet  of  surface  to  be  painted. 

1.  A  room  is  12  feet  wide,  15  feet  long,  and  9  feet 
high.  It  has  two  windows  and  one  door,  each  about  3 
feet  by  6  feet.  How  many  rolls  of  paper  will  be 
required  to  paper  the  walls  ?  How  much  for  the  ceil- 
ing ?    How  many  yards  of  border  ?    If  the  paper  costs 


FARM  ARITHMETIC  PROBLEMS  95 

20  cents  a  roll  and  the  border  3  cents  a  yard,  and  the 
paper  hanger  charges  25  cents  a  roll  for  hanging  the 
paper  and  3  cents  a  yard  for  the  border,  what  will  be 
the  total  cost? 

2.  Measure  the  school  room  you  are  in  and  find 
out  what  it  would  cost  to  paper  it,  allowing  that  the 
paper  would  cost  15  cents  per  roll  and  the  work  of 
hanging  it  20  cents  per  roll  ?  How  much  for  the  pa- 
per alone? 

3.  How  much  would  it  cost  to  paint  the  outside  of 
the  school  house,  if  the  paint  cost  $1.65  per  gallon? 
What  would  the  painter  charge  for  putting  it  on,  at  5 
cents  per  square  yard  ? 

4.  How  much  would  it  cost  to  paint  the  roof  of 
the  school  house,  if  the  roof  paint  cost  90  cents  per 
gallon  and  the  work  of  putting  it  on  3  cents  per 
square  yard? 

Farm  Sales 

1.  An  auctioneer  gets  for  his  pay  one  per  cent  of 
the  total  received.  If  a  sale  amounts  to  $3,457.50, 
what  does  he  receive? 

2.  Some  auctioneers  get  $10  and  one  per  cent  of 
the  total  of  the  sale.  What  would  this  amount  to  on 
above  sale  ? 

3.  The  terms  of  sale  are :  Sums  under  $10,  cash. 
Amounts  over  that,  one  year's  time  at  6  per  cent  in- 
terest, or  2  per  cent  off  for  cash.  A  man  buys  a 
horse  for  $150.     What  will  he  have  to  pay  for  it  at 


96  THE  COR:NT  LADY 

the  end  of  the  year's  time,  including  the  interest? 
How  much  if  he  pays  cash  ? 

4.  If  the  terms  are,  one  year's  time  without  in- 
terest or  8  per  cent  off  for  cash,  what  will  he  have 
to  pay  at  the  end  of  the  year?  What  if  he  pays 
cash? 

5.  If  the  terms  are,  sums  under  $10  cash,  over 
that  amount  8  per  cent  discount,  will  it  pay  better 
to  bid  $9.50  and  pay  the  net  cash,  or  $10.25  and  get 
the  discount? 

6.  Ear  corn  at  a  sale  is  usually  sold  and  measured 
off  at  4,300  cubic  inches  to  the  bushel.  How  does  this 
agree  with  the  common  rule  of  2  bushels  to  each  5 
cubic  feet? 

7.  A  crib  of  corn  10  feet  by  12  feet  by  32  feet  is 
sold  at  4,300  cubic  inches  to  the  bushel  at  51  cents 
per  bushel.  What  does  it  come  to?  If  the  terms 
are  8  per  cent  discount  for  cash,  what  will  be  the 
net  cost  ?    What  will  be  the  net  cost  per  bushel  ? 

8.  Have  the  pupils  get  the  figures  on  some  actual 
transactions  at  farm  sales  and  figure  up  the  discount 
and  the  interest  charges  according  to  the  terms  of 
the  sale. 

Farm  Labor  and  Its  Payment 

In  counting  up  time,  count  26  working  days  to  a 
month,  10  hours  to  a  day,  and  6  days  to  a  week. 
1.     If  a  man  is  getting  $30  a  month,  how  much  is 


FAKM  AK1THMETIC  PKOBLEMS  97 

that  a  day?     How  much  a  week?     How  much  an 
hour? 

2.  Which  is  the  bigger  pay — $10  a  week,  or  $40  a 
month  ? 

3.  A  man  works  from  March  1  to  June  20,  los- 
ing four  days  in  that  time.  What  would  his  wages 
amount  to  at  $30  per  month?  (The  number  of 
working  days  can  be  counted  on  a  calendar.) 

4.  A  man  working  at  $10  a  week  loses  one-half  of 
one  day  and  two  hours  another  day.  What  will  he  re- 
ceive, after  counting  out  his  lost  time? 

5.  A  man  working  at  $25  per  month,  begins 
March  15  and  works  till  August  12,  losing  9  days 
during  that  time.  He  has  drawn  at  different  times 
$47.     How  much  is  coming  to  him? 

6.  A  man  in  town  is  getting  $1.75  a  day  and  has 
to  pay  $4  a  week  board.  Another  man  is  working  on 
a  farm  at  $30  a  month  and  board.  Which  is  really 
the  bigger  pay?     How  much? 

7.  Which  is  the  bigger  net  pay — $30  a  month  and 
board,  or  $10  a  week  and  pay  $3.50  a  week  board? 

8.  An  acre  contains  160  square  rods,  or  4,356 
square  feet.  Corn  is  ordinarily  planted  3  feet,  6 
inches,  each  way.    How  many  hills  to  an  acre? 

9.  If  a  man  is  hired  to  cut  up  corn  at  10  cents  a 
shock,  14  hills  square,  how  much  is  this  an  acre? 
How  much  an  acre  if  the  shocks  are  16  hills  square? 

10.  If  a  man  is  paid  3  cents  per  bushel  for  husk- 
ing corn,  what  will  he  earn  for  the  week  if  his  loads 


98  THE  CORN  LADY 

run  as  follows,  allowing  1,200  pounds  out  for  the 
weight  of  the  wagon  each  time:  Gross  weights  of 
loads— 3650,  3630,  3700,  3760,  3750,  3710,  3420, 
2910,  3400,  3450,  3510,  3580  ? 

11.  Have  each  pupil  bring  to  school  the  actual  fig- 
ures on  a.  settlement  for  farm  labor,  and  have  the 
class  work  it  out. 

Farm  Drainage 

1.  A  40-acre  piece  of  low  land  (a  quarter  of  a 
mile  across)  is  3  feet,  4  inches,  higher  at  one  side 
than  the  other.  How  much  fall  will  this  be  to  the 
rod? 

2.  If  the  tile  cost  $20  per  1000,  each  tile  being  a 
foot  long,  and  the  laying  of  them  costs  25  cents  per 
rod,  what  will  it  cost  to  lay  four  strings  of  tile  across 
this  40  acres? 

3.  How  much  will  this  amount  to  per  acre  ? 

4.  If  it  increases  the  yield  of  corn  on  this  land 
an  average  of  5  bushels  per  year  for  ten  years,  what 
will  this  increase  of  corn  be  worth  at  40  cents  per 
bushel  ?    How  much  on  the  whole  40  acres  ? 

5.  What  will  be  the  net  gain  per  acre  over  the 
cost  of  tiling?  What  will  be  the  net  gain  on  the 
whole  40  acres  ? 

6.  A  40-acre  field  is  a  quarter  of  a  mile  (80  rods) 
each  way.  How  many  rods  of  tile  will  it  take  to  run 
diagonally  across  it,  coming  in  at  one  corner  and  out 
at  the  other  corner?     Draw  a  diagram  of  this. 


FARM  ARITHMETIC  PROBLEMS  99 

7.  Measure  the  distance  across  the  school  ground 
the  long  way  and  estimate  the  numher  of  tile  it 
would  take  to  lay  one  string  of  tiling  across  it.  How 
much  would  it  cost,  reckoning  the  tile  at  $20  per 
1000  and  the  laying  at  25  cents  per  rod? 

8.  The  very  wettest  of  land  can  be  thoroughly 
drained  (if  a  proper  outlet  can  be  had)  by  laying 
lines  of  tiling  three  rods  apart.  To  drain  a  field  20 
rods  wide  and  80  rods  long  in  this  way,  running  the 
tile  the  long  way  of  the  field,  how  much  tile  will 
be  required,  and  what  would  it  cost?    Draw  diagram. 

9.  The  gain  in  yield  from  tiling  would  be  at  least 
10  bushels  of  corn  per  acre,  or  its  equivalent  in  other 
crops.  If  the  tiling  lasted  for  30  years,  what  would 
be  the  total  gain  ?    What  would  be  the  net  gain  ? 


Handy  Farm  Measures 

1.  A  bushel  of  small  grain  or  shelled  corn  is  l1/^ 
cubic  feet.  To  find  the  capacity  of  a  bin,  multiply  the 
length,  breadth,  and  depth,  together  (in  feet)  and 
take  4-5  of  it. 

2.  A  bushel  of  ear  corn  is  2y2  cubic  feet.  To  find 
the  capacity  of  a  crib  in  bushels,  multiply  the  length, 
breadth,  and  depth,  together  (in  feet),  and  take 
SWi  of  it. 

3.  A  bushel  of  apples  or  potatoes  is  1  1-3  cubic 
feet.    To  find  the  bushels,  take  %  of  the  cubic  feet. 


100  THE  CORN  LADY 

4.  The  area  of  a  circle  is  about  %  that  of  a 
square  of  the  same  diameter.  The  exact  fraction  is 
.7854.  So  to  find  the  area  of  a  circle,  multiply  the 
diameter  by  itself,  and  multiply  the  result  by  .7854, 
which  is  the  same  as  taking  a  little  over  %  °f  it 

5.  The  circumference  (distance  around)  of  a  cir- 
cle is  a  little  more  than  three  times  the  diameter.  The 
exact  fraction  is  3.1416. 

6.  To  find  the  contents  of  a  pointed  heap  of  corn, 
find  the  area  of  the  bottom  of  the  pile  in  square 
feet,  and  multiply  that  by  half  the  height  of  the 
highest  point.  This  will  give  you  the  cubic  feet, 
which  can  be  reduced  to  bushels.  To  find  the  con- 
tents of  a  circular  crib  of  corn,  find  the  area  of  the 
circular  base,  and  multiply  that  by  the  height.  This 
will  give  the  cubic  feet. 

7.  A  ton  of  tame  hay  will  about  equal  a  space 
8x8x8  feet.    Wild  hay,  7x7x7  feet. 

8.  A  barrel  of  water  is  about  4  cubic  feet. 

9.  A  cubic  foot  of  water  weighs  621/4  pounds. 

10.  An  acre  is  160  square  rods;  43,560  square 
feet;  4840  square  yards. 

11.  The  board  foot  used  in  reckoning  lumber  is  a 
square  foot  an  inch  thick. 

12.  A  gallon  is  a  trifle  over  %  of  a  cubic  foot.  To 
find  the  capacity  of  a  tank,  estimate  the  contents  in 
cubic  feet,  and  multiply  by  8  for  the  number  of  gal- 
lons, and  divide  by  4  for  the  number  of  barrels.  This 
will  be  very  nearly  correct. 


FARM  ARITHMETIC  PROBLEMS        101 

13.  To  find  the  number  of  pounds  of  butter  fat  in 
in  milk.  Take  the  test  per  cent  of  the  number  of 
pounds  of  milk.  For  instance,  if  milk  tests  4  per 
cent,  50  pounds  of  milk  will  contain  2  pounds  of 
butter  fat. 


Spraying  Mixtures 
for  biting  insects 

Dry  Paris  Green  Wet  Paris  Green. 

Paris  green    1  lb.     Paris  green    ^4  lb. 

Lime  or  Lime  ^  to  y2  lb. 

flour  ...20  to  50  lbs.     Water   50  gals. 

for  soft-bodied  sucking  insects 

Kerosene  Emulsion 

Hard  soap  (in  fine  shavings) y2  lb. 

Water 1   gal. 

Kerosene  2  gals. 

Dissolve  soap  in  boiling  water,  add  kerosene  to  the 
hot  water,  churn  with  spraying  pump  until  the  mix- 
ture changes  to  a  creamy,  then  to  a  soft,  butter- 
like mass.  This  gives  three  gallons  of  66  per  cent 
oil  emulsion  which  may  be  diluted  to  the  strength 


102  THE  CORN  LADY 

desired.     To  get  15  per  cent  oil  emulsion  add  ten 
and  one-half  gallons  water. 

foe  fungous  diseases 
Copper  Sulphate 

Copper  sulphate    1  lb. 

Water 18  to  25  gals. 

Use  only  before  foliage  opens,  to  kill  wintering 
spores. 

Bordeaux  Mixture 

Copper  sulphate    5  lbs. 

Lime   (good  and  unslacked)    .5  lbs. 

Water   50  gals. 

A  List  of  Useful  Bulletins 

Simply  on  request,  a  large  number  of  government 
bulletins  on  subjects  of  the  greatest  interest  to  stu- 
dents in  a  country  school,  may  be  obtained.  Ad- 
dress the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Circular  Number  2.  Gives  a  list  of  all  publica- 
tions for  free  distribution. 

The  Year  Book  of  Agriculture.  Gives  much  valu- 
able information. 

It  would  be  well  to  have  the  following  bulletins 
on  hand  at  the  beginning  of  the  term : 

Farmers'  Bulletins  Nos.  408,  28,  188,  89,  214,  215,- 


FARM  ARITHMETIC  PROBLEM S        103 

192,  77,  44,  40,  187,  170,  55,  29,  42,  63,  57,  201, 
166,  409. 

U.  S.  Bulletins  Nob.  91,  32,  38,  75,  45,  99,  132, 
171,  196,  141,  41,  200,  64,  408,  289,  179,  205,  49. 

Your  own  state  college  of  agriculture,  also  will 
furnish  you  with  many  bulletins  especially  valuable 
as  they  deal  with  the  special  problems  of  your 
own  state. 

Secure  the  soil  survey  map  of  your  own  county,  if 
it  has  been  made.  This  can  be  secured  through  the 
State  College  of  Agriculture. 

Language  in  Connection  With  the  Teaching  of 
Farm  and  Home  Subjects. 

Every  pupil  needs  much  careful  training  in  how 
to  express  himself  clearly  and  correctly.  He  can 
best  learn  to  use  good  English  by  writing  or  tell- 
ing of  things  of  which  he  knows,  things  that  are  a 
part  of  his  life  and  his  work ;  or,  subjects  on  which  he 
can  get  information  from  the  people  around  him. 
We  must  have  some  personal  interest,  or  some  first 
hand  information  in  order  to  gain  anything  in  try- 
ing to  express  ourselves. 

Let  the  children  write  on  subjects  such  as  the  fol- 
lowing: 

How  Can  We  Get  Good  Roads? 

How  to  Make  a  King  Road  Drag. 

Home    Xursing. 


104  THE  CORN  LADY 

Are  Birds  of  Use  to  the  Farmer? 

Keeping  the  Soil  Fertile. 

Alfalfa. 

The  Silo. 

Bread  Making. 

The  Right  and  the  Wrong  Way. 

Why  I  Like  to  Live  in  the  County. 

Horses  and  Their  Feed. 

Growing  Apples. 

Wild  Flowers  and  Their  Use  in  Beautifying  Home 
and  School  Grounds. 

Does  Farming  Pay  ? 

The  Selecting,  Storing  and  Testing  of  Seed  Corn. 

The  Farmer's  Library  and  Reading  Table. 

Modern  Conveniences  in  the  Farm  Home. 

Getting  Rid  of  Flies. 

The  Story  of  the  Life  of  a  Great  Farmer. 

Many  more  subjects  could  be  given.  The  sub- 
jects must  be  suited  to  the  knowledge  and  inter- 
est of  the  pupils  as  well  as  to  the  needs  of  the  homes 
and  the  farms  in  the  community. 

Wherever  possible,  such  composition  should  be  il- 
lustrated by  original  drawing  and  diagrams.  Clip- 
pings from  agricultural  papers  and  bulletins  may  be 
used  to  good  advantage,  also.  Thorough,  original 
investigation  should  be  the  basis  for  all  such  work. 
It  will  not  only  make  students  who  can  write  well, 
but  it  will  make  students  who  can  think  and  judge 
for  themselves. 


FARM  ARITHMETIC  PROBLEMS        105 
Corn. 

The  usual  distance  between  hills  is  3  ft.  8  in.  If 
checked  at  this  distance  apart,  there  are  3240  hills 
in  one  acre.  If  there  is  a  perfect  stand,  three  stalks 
in  a  hill,  and  each  stalk  has  one  twelve- ounce  ear  of 
corn  on  it,  the  field  will  produce  104  bushels  of  corn 
on  an  acre.  Yet,  the  average  yield  in  the  United 
States  is  only  38  bu.  to  the  acre. 

To  secure  a  good  yield  of  corn  we  must  have 
good  seed,  good  soil  and  good  cultivation. 

Corn  Judging. 

The  object  in  judging  corn  is  to  determine  the 
corn  that  when  planted  will  produce  the  most  corn 
of  the  best  quality.  The  score  card  used  by  the 
Extension  Department  of  the  Iowa  State  College  of 
Agriculture  is  plain,  logical  and  easily  grasped.  It 
takes  up  the  points  under  four  heads. 

I.  WILL  IT  YIELD?    25  points. 

That  is,  will  it  yield  well;  has  it  constitu- 
tion; can  we  depend  upon  it  even  when  weather 
conditions  are  unfavorable? 

II.  WILL  IT  RIPEX?     25  points. 

That  is,  will  it  mature;  will  it  ripen  every 
year ;  is  it  safe  for  the  locality  ? 

III.  DOES    IT     SHOW   IMPROVEMENT?    25 
points. 

That  is,  has  it  breeding;  has  it  a  distinct 


106  THE  CORN  LADY 

type;    will   it   reproduce   itself;   has   it   several 
years  of  careful  selection  and  improvement  back 
of  it? 
IV.     WILL  IT  GROW?    25  points. 

That  is,  has  it  vitality ;  will  it  germinate ;  will 
it  all  grow  and  grow  uniformly,  giving  strong, 
vigorous  plants? 

Bread. 

United  States  Government  Bulletins  Nos.  52,  67, 
101,  112  and  121  will  give  information  on  bread 
work. 

Score  Card  for  Bread. 

SCALE  OF  POINTS 

Perfect  Score. 

1.  FLAVOR,     sweet     and     nutty     as     deter- 

mined by  the  taste 25 

2.  LIGHTNESS,  well  risen,    as    determined 

by  weight  of  the  loaf  measured  by  the 
weight  of  the  materials  used 15 

3.  SWEETNESS,  free  from    sour,    musty    or 

yeasty  smell,  as  determined  by  the  odor.  .     10 

4.  TEXTURE     AND     GRAIN.     These     are 

closely  associated  and  are  judged  by  the 
fineness  and  tenderness  of  the  crumb 
(crumb  is  the  inside  of  the  loaf  and 
crust  the  outside).  Should  be  elastic,  uni- 
form and  smooth  and  free  from  large 
holes    15 


FARM  ARITHMETIC  PROBLEMS        107 

5.  COLOR,  should   be  creamy  white 15 

6.  CRUST,  should  be  about   3-8   of  an  inch 

in  depth,  of  a  very  fine  texture,  and  a 
golden  brown  color 5 

7.  SHAPE    AXD     SIZE,    should    be    about 

3y2x7y2x3  inches   5 

8.  DOUGHIXESS  AXD  MOISTURE.  Bread 

should  spring  back  when  an  impression 
is  made  by  the  fingers.  Crust  should  be 
crisp  and  crumble  easily 10 

Total    100 

Rules  for  Making  Button  Holes. 

1.  Cut  slit  the  diameter  of  the  button  to  be  used. 

2.  First  strand  the  button  hole  by  taking  one  or 
more  long  stitches  to  the  extreme  end  of  the  slit  and 
back  again  on  the  opposite  side.  The  button  hole 
stitch  will  cover  and  be  strengthened  by  them. 

3.  Overcast  over  the  stranding.  This  overcast- 
ing must  not  be  deep  or  it  will  show. 

4.  Take  the  first  stitch  by  putting  the  needle  into 
the  slit  close  to  the  end  and  bring  it  out  far  enough 
from  the  edge  of  the  slit  to  avoid  danger  from  ravel- 
ling. The  thread  must  be  thrown  from  the  eye  of 
the  needle  under  the  point  in  the  direction  the  work 
is  advancing.  Turn  the  corners  of  the  slit  by  placing 
the  stitches  fan-shaped  around  the  end. 


Announcements 


For   Intermediate   Teachers 


Busy  Hands  Construction  Work 

By  Isabelle  F.  Bowker,  of  the  Chicago  Public 
Schools.  Embracing  work  in  cardboard  folding  and 
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carefully  chosen  and  are  familiar  to  all  children. 
170  illustrations.     Cloth.      Price,  60  cents. 


Scissors  and  Paste 

By  Grace  Goodridge.  A  book  of  fifty  designs  for 
cutting  and  pasting,  with  helpful  suggestions  for  the 
teacher.     Price,  25  cents. 

Memory  Gems  for  Home  and  School 

By  L.  E.  Johnston.  Contains  265  beautiful  glean- 
ings from  a  variety  of  sources  for  intermediate  and 
grammar  grades.      Price,  10  cents. 

Stories  in  Season 

A  book  of  stories  and  poems  in  great  variety,  illus- 
trating the  seasons  of  the  year,  the  months,  etc.,  put 
in  usable  form  by  Miss  George,  the  well-known 
editor  of  The  Plan  Books.     Price,  50  cents. 

Songs  in  Season 

The  title  indicates  the  character  of  this  most  useful 
book.  There  are  twenty  songs  of  Spring,  twenty-six 
of  Autumn,  and  thirty  of  Winter,  together  with  eight 
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laneous songs.      Paper.     Price,  50  cents. 

A.  FLANAGAN  COMPANY,  CHICAGO 


For  Higher  Teachers 

First  Steps  in  English  Composition 

By  H.  C.  Peterson,  Ph.D.  Professor  of  English, 
Manual  Training  School,  Chicago.  A  book  so 
simple,  so  bright,  so  practical,  and  so  pleasantly 
productive  of  original  work  in  composition  writing 
and  in  the  orderly  and  correct  presentation  of 
thought,  that  it  is  being  hailed  with  delight  every- 
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Outlines,  Tables  and  Sketches  in  U.  S.  History 

By  S.  Laura  Ensign.  The  best  and  most  complete 
book  of  outlines  in  U.  S.  History  published.  Over 
one  hundred  thousand  copies  have  been  sold.     Price, 

25  cents. 

One  Hundred  Authors 

By  Bessie  H.  Shedd.  Outlines  in  English  and 
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Outlines  in  English  and  American  Literature 

By  W.  E.  Wenner,  State  Normal  School,  Slippery 
Rock,  Pa.  For  High  Schools,  Colleges,  Teachers' 
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Development  Lessons  in  Mensuration 

By  Wm.  F.  Sell,  Principal  Ward  School,  Milwau- 
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Chicago  Normal  School. 

A  valuable  and  interesting  little  work  telling  about  Forms  and 
Growths  of  Bacteria.  How  destroyed,  bacteria  in  fruits  and 
vegetables  —  not  dry  reading  but  intensely  interesting;  various 
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canning,  preserving  and  jellying,  molds,  yeast  and  yeast  substi- 
tutes, etc.,  etc.     A  pamphlet  of  32  pages.     Price  10  cents. 

LIFE  ON  THE  FARM :  Or  Scientific  Agriculture  Sim- 
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Presents  in  simple,  untechnical  and  interesting  language  some 
of  the  general  principles  of  agriculture.  Treats  of  the  soil,  air, 
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both  a  reader  and  a  reference  work.   Cloth.  166  pages.  Price  50c 

PRODUCTS  OF  THE  SOIL:  By  W.  F.  Rocheleau. 
With  fifty-seven  illustrations. 

Presents  a  comprehensive  and  interesting  treatment  of  Lumber, 
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ONE  HUNDRED  LESSONS  IN  ELEMENTARY 
AGRICULTURE 

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